1.  Botham watched the early matches of the series in India before travelling to Australia for a six-week speaking tour with former West Indies captain Viv Richards.

2.  Best potential early match is Kournikova versus Graf in the quarterfinals.

3.  Best potential early match is Rafter against Goran Ivanisevic in the quarters.

4.  Both seemed to know that in these early matches, winning or losing is less important than avoiding a crash landing.

5.  He benefited from the long early matches and rain delays that postponed his match, therefore giving him an extra day of rest.

6.  He thinks the time off contributed to his two long early matches.

7.  In the early match, Nebraska faces Hawaii.

8.  Only three times has a team won the World Cup while losing an early round match.

9.  The tension in this early match set the table for the rest of the midday competition taking place under suffocating heat and humidity.

10.  Those early matches, often played out on the hood of the family car, soon gave way to organized events.