The other two seeds, Arnaud Boetsch of France and the Chilean Marcelo Rios, lost on Monday.In the women's event, the eighth seed, Naoko Sawamatsu of Japan, who reached the quarter-finals of last year's Australian Open, held off four match points to overcome Switzerland's Martina Hingis 6-4, 2-6, 7-5, while the Belgian Dominique Monami went through 7-6, 6- 3 over a qualifier, Veronika Martinek of Germany. "We've relied only on Jeremy Bates, but with Greg and I playing better, hopefully we can put British tennis back on the map."Marc Rosset withdrew with a broken finger, having punched an advertising hoarding in last weekend's Hopman Cup final, but the top seed, Goran Ivanisevic, went through with a comfortable 6-3, 6-3 win over Germany's David Prinosil. The sixth seed Jan Siemerink and the seventh seed Alberto Costa were both beaten: by Sebastian Lareau, of Canada, and Mark Woodforde, of Australia, respectively. "The bottom line is that I gave him [Rusedski] too many free points, and it's tough to win a match like that," Krajicek said.These two victories provide optimism about the season to come for British tennis, and more immediately about the the Australian Open, the first Grand Slam of the year "In the last 10 or 15 years we have suffered," Henman said. The Dutchman, ranked No 11 in the world, was less consistent than the Briton, and although he recovered Rusedski's break of serve for 3-1 in the seventh game of the first set, he played a disastrous tie- break to fall to an unrecoverable 6-0 deficit, and finally lost the match 7-6 (7-4), 7-6 (8-6).

"I think that was really the first time I played as well as I can play." Henman believed that Philippoussis, whose game has been perhaps unfairly criticised for being based solely on power, may have felt the pressure of Australian expectation.Meanwhile the Montreal-born Rusedski, currently ranked 38th in the world, won a heavy-hitting first-round match in two tie-break sets against the No 2 seed, Richard Krajicek of the Netherlands. Henman, whose world ranking of 95 meant that he had to play through the qualifying tournament in Sydney, was understandably upbeat after his triumph."I don't know if I outsmarted him, but his game can sometimes become a little one-dimensional," Henman said of Philippoussis. Only two seeded players now remain in the men's draw.Henman's unexpectedly easy 6-4, 6-2 victory over Mark Philippoussis, ranked 39th in the world, was the more noteworthy of the two British successes, especially since his teenage opponent has been widely acclaimed as the best prospect for Australian tennis since Pat Cash. Tennis ROB DORSETT Tim Henman and Greg Rusedski both caused upsets yesterday as they advanced to the second round of the Peters International tournament in Sydney, a warm-up for the Australian Open which starts on Monday.

Given the legal requirements for governments and companies to comply with laws on discrimination, it is a nonsense to argue that political parties should be exempt.To this extent, the decision of the Leeds Industrial Tribunal should be welcomed.As for me, I would welcome the opportunity to be considered for selection in any winnable Labour seat, but I shall continue in any case with my academic career in law.The writer won his sexual discrimination claim against the Labour Party on Monday.. What it chose to do, however, was to make a declaration that the Labour Party had sexually discriminated against both Roger Dyas-Elliott and myself in the constituencies of Regents Park and Kensington North, Brentford & Isleworth and Keighley. The Labour Party should now accept this decision of the industrial tribunal and get on with planning for the general election. To lodge an appeal in the courts would only establish a sore that would run until, and possibly beyond, the forthcoming election. To many, it is seen as wrong that democratic decisions of a political party are challenged in the courts. Democracy, however, is not, and never can be, the tyranny of the majority over the minority, with no ground rules as to standards.

Would it be acceptable for the board of ICI to meet and democratically vote that they will only employ men? Of course not; in a democracy they should, and must, respect the rule of law.No doubt this can be criticised as the imposition of political correctness, in that the views of the state with regard to what is sexually and racially correct are imposed upon society. But what is the alternative? Surely it cannot be acceptable that we have no employment laws, as some Fleet Street editors have implied, with just the rule of the jungle applying.The Treaty of Rome requires governments to legislate so as to provide equal pay for men and women, with subsequent directives requiring equal treatment among the sexes. Because of these binding international covenants, European governments areobliged to eradicate sexual discrimination, with some welcome attempts being made to extend this obligation to cover racial discrimination.It is a fact of law that governments are subject to the jurisdiction of the European Community, just as companies are subject to European and domestic laws. If the risk of emotional scarring is so serious, perhaps the Chinese and Romanians would be kinder if they killed them all quickly? Looking at those desperate babies in last night's film, the humane answer for those with no chance of escape might well be yes, but I doubt any social worker would dare say so outright.. Why, some of them ask, don't these selfish couples want difficult British 10-year-olds from a life-time in care, or children with disabilities? Because most ordinary people hope and pray they don't have difficult or disabled children. Those who do adopt hard cases are remarkable and admirable people - but why should the unlucky infertile be expected to predominate among them?Adoption from abroad will never solve the starving world's problems, but each one is at least one child saved.

She questions many adopters' "value systems" and wonders why they don't try to adopt from Rwanda. "We can't try to save all the world's children - we may have contributed to many of the world's problems in the first place." She draws on the experience of black British children brought up by white adopters, who, she says, suffer serious problems with their racial identity in a racist culture.The basic question she and others don't address, however, is whether a suitable adoptive family is one that rescues a child from certain death?Among some social workers there remains an instinctive distaste for people who want to adopt healthy babies - middle-class, grasping, only in it for themselves ... But an interview with Josephine Kwhali, assistant director of quality assurance and planning, who chairs their adoption panel, reveals all the ideological baggage that underpins this issue.She says the reaction to last night's film will be "emotional", with couples falling for the charm of "sweet little babies" but she doubts they will cope with the child's needs for identity and cultural roots. They take a practical, not an ideological, view.The O'Curry family is among those to have fallen foul of the ideology of their local authority. Four years ago they adopted a seriously backward child from a Romanian orphanage. They want to adopt her two sisters, so neglected that they cannot feed themselves, walk or talk.