Agassi squeezes through
Andre Agassi moved into the last eight of the US Open but he was made to work for his fourth-round victory over Belgian Xavier Malisse.
The seventh-seeded American was forced to a fifth set by Malisse before ultimately prevailing 6-3 6-4 6-7 (5/7) 4-6 6-2.
After winning the first two sets, Agassi was up a mini-break at 5-4 in the third-set tiebreaker.
But the American lost both points on serve and Malisse won the next with a winner to take the set.
The Belgian took advantage of an early break to win the fourth set in just 28 minutes, setting up the decider.
However, Agassi broke Malisse in the fourth game and held thereafter, closing out the encounter in two hours, 55 minutes, with another service break.
“He kept raising his game all the way through the fourth set,” Agassi said.
“(It) appeared like the wheels were starting to come off a little bit toward the end of the fourth set, but I couldn’t get into the points on his serve. He was hitting the lines, hitting them real close to the lines.
“But then in the fifth, I settled down a little bit on my service games and my groundstrokes, put enough pressure on him to get that break.”
Malisse had rallied from a two-set deficit to beat 24th seed Mikhail Youzhny of Russia in the third round but was unable to repeat the feat.
“The first game of the fifth set, he hit three winners,” Malisse said.
“He started serving really well. I didn’t play much differently. I went for my shots. A couple went long. You know, you got to have that little bit of luck.
“At the end, too, even match point, I couldn’t hit it any harder, any more perfect. He hit a slice down the line for a passing shot. You know, he was just too good in the fifth set.”
With the victory, Agassi became only the fourth man aged 35 or older to reach the quarter-finals here.
The highest seed remaining in the bottom half of the draw, Agassi awaits fellow American James Blake.
Two days after stunning second-seeded Spaniard Rafael Nadal, the wild card rallied past another Spaniard, 19th seed Tommy Robredo 4-6 7-5 6-2 6-3 to reach his first Grand Slam quarter-final.
Robredo held a 5-2 second-set lead before Blake won five straight games to even the match, saving a set point in the process, then took the next two sets easily.
“I don’t know how I did it,” Blake said.
Eighth seed Guillermo Coria of Argentina beat Chilean Nicolas Massu 6-4 2-6 6-7 (5/7) 6-2 6-2 in four hours and 32 minutes – the longest match of the tournament so far.
After the testy match featuring a combined 15 breaks of serve, Coria jumped over the net and gave a half-hearted hand slap to Massu before hugging his entourage.
Coria will meet Robby Ginepri in the quarter-finals after the American beat 13th seed Richard Gasquet of France 6-3 3-6 6-7 (8/10) 6-4 6-0 in the last match of the day.
