With Father in Court, Graf Has Own Trials

MELBOURNE, Australia — Hours after prosecutors in Germany asked for more than a six-year sentence for her father, a distracted Steffi Graf started slowly Wednesday at the Australian Open, then finished fast amid unusual flashes of anger.

Graf, spraying shots wildly in the breeze, fell behind 0-4 in the first set against Larisa Neiland.

Railing at herself, the umpire, the wind, the sprinkles of rain and everything else that bothered her, the top-seeded Graf charged the net more boldly, fought off four set points and closed out a 7-5, 6-2 victory to reach the third round.

“I started pretty slow and she started off hitting incredible shots,” Graf said. “I needed some time to focus. I needed a while to find my rhythm.”

In other women’s matches, 1995 champion Mary Pierce celebrated her 22nd birthday by beating Natalia Medvedeva, 6-2, 6-2, and No. 16 Sabine Appelmans downed Ann Grossman, 6-4, 6-1.

The mother of German player Anke Huber collapsed and was taken to a hospital before Huber’s second-round match with Francesca Lubiani of Italy. The match was rescheduled for Thursday.

Graf has been able to win impressively over the past year, taking all three Grand Slam events she entered, despite the personal trauma of seeing her father imprisoned and on trial for tax evasion over the handling of $26.5 million of her earnings.

In the men’s draw, No. 2-seeded Michael Chang faced no problems in a 6-3, 7-5, 6-1 victory over Richey Reneberg.

“At this point, maybe Richey didn’t come as prepared as he would have liked because [his wife] just had a baby,” Chang said. “I would imagine that when a baby is . . . around the corner, that the last thing on your mind is probably tennis.”

Spain’s Carlos Moya, 20, followed his first-round upset of defending champion Boris Becker with a 3-6, 6-0, 6-3, 6-1 win over Patrick McEnroe.