KEY BISCAYNE, Fla. -- Monica Seles, a two-time tournament champion, survived a scare in her 1998 debut, holding off Spain's Maria Antonia Sanchez Lorenzo, 6-4, 6-7 (2-7), 6-3 Saturday at the Lipton Championships. The match was tied in the third set when Seles scored a late service break and won the final three games.

Seles, who

Monica Seles was welcomed back to the Lipton with a three-set struggle on Saturday. (Allsport)

currently resides in Florida, had been spending time with her ailing father, Karolj, who has cancer. She won here in 1990 and 1991 and lost to Martina Hingis in last year's final.

Also Saturday, Mirjana Lucic, the youngest player at the event, was betrayed by her lack of experience and maturity against fellow 16-year-old Anna Kournikova.

KOURNIKOVA, A SEMIFINALIST AT Wimbledon last year, used her all-court game to pressure Lucic in a 6-4, 6-2 victory. The taller but less agile Croatian became flustered and frustrated, committed eight double faults and hit everything as hard as she could from the baseline.

The result was 30 unforced errors and a 56-minute match.

"If I did exactly what I intended to do, I knew that I would win," Kournikova said.

Kournikova and Lucic had met only once previously, and that was in an exhibition that Lucic won. Because both are considered potential Grand Slam winners, their match offered a glimpse into the future.

Neither player is in the top 20 -- yet -- but they were assigned to the stadium court, bumping such established stars as Seles and Jana Novotna to lesser stages.

"That was probably the first time in a very long time that I played somebody younger than I am," Kournikova said.

KOURNIKOVA ADVANCED TO THE third round, where her opponent will be Seles.

Kournikova and Seles have never played each other.

"It's going to be something new, so I am looking forward to that," Kournikova said. "I respect her game very much."

In other second-round play, Lindsay Davenport, the top seeded player in action, easily disposed of Pavlina Stoyanova of Bulgaria, 6-2, 6-2.

Third seed Novotna of the Czech Republic, a semifinalist last year, crushed Magdalena Grzybowska of Poland, 6-1, 6-1; eighth seed and two-time champion Arantxa Sanchez Vicario of Spain rallied past Shi-Ting Wang of Taipei, 4-6, 6-4, 6-2; and ninth seed Conchita Martinez of Spain downed Anna Smashnova of Israel, 6-4, 6-2.

Also, No. 12 Nathalie Tauziat of France got past American Ann Wunderlich, 7-5, 6-4; No. 14 Anke Huber of Germany rallied past Janet Lee of Taipei, 2-6, 6-4, 6-4; and No. 15 Dominique van Roost of Belgium retired with an undislosed injury with Elena Likhovtseva of Russia leading, 6-1, 1-0.

No. 18 Sabine Appelmans of Belgium and No. 26 Henrieta Nagyova of Slovakia won their second-round matches, but No. 20 Ruxandra Dragomir of Romania and No. 22 Brenda Schultz-McCarthy of the Netherlands were eliminated.