Agassi Has That Look of Invincibility

The task of getting through Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi in consecutive rounds proved to be too much for Todd Martin at the Australian Open.

It’s understandable.

After playing a superb brand of serve-and-volley tennis, beating Sampras at his own game in four sets, Martin had to come out one round later against the defending champion and the sixth-seeded Agassi, who has the best service return in the game.

Agassi hit his stride in the quarterfinals, beating Martin, 7-5, 6-3, 6-4, in slightly under two hours today. Agassi will play either No. 12 Patrick Rafter of No. 14 Dominik Hrbaty of Slovakia in the semifinals.

Quite simply, Martin said that Agassi’s level of play was the highest he had witnessed from him. And Agassi and Martin have played one another 18 times with Agassi winning 13 of those matches. “I didn’t have anything to lose. I didn’t play nearly as well as I hoped,” Martin said.

“I was simply beaten today. I didn’t really lose.”

He joked about his progress here, calling himself: “The oddball of the group to make it this far in the draw.”

Agassi was ready. Others may have been feeling some sort of letdown about the lessened marquee value of the quarterfinal, but Agassi, while saying all the right things about wanting to play Sampras, kept the necessary focus and has continued to make the right adjustments.

“Pete and I are just two players out there trying to win it,” Agassi said. “It’s a hard task to beat us, no question, two different styles of game. I came out today and had to be my best.”

He acknowledged that the slower court hurt Sampras in the loss to Martin in the fourth round.

“Had the court played a little faster you might have seen Pete win those two matches a little more easily,” Agassi said. “For me it’s just about adjusting.”

That’s being modest. Agassi had only two unforced errors in the second set and 14 in all. He had one slight stumble in the third set, losing his serve at 3-3. Agassi erased that by breaking Martin in the very next game.

Agassi clinched the match by making a series of incredible shots off Martin’s volleys, finishing it off with a topspin lob winner.

He has lost only one set in five matches, dropping one to Andrew Ilie of Australia in the fourth round.

Agassi lost his serve twice to Martin and broke Martin’s serve six times.

In earlier action, despite losing his fourth-round match to Sebastien Grosjean of France, fourth-seeded Magnus Norman of Sweden won a great deal of respect and admiration for his actions on match point. Grosjean seemed to deliver an ace, the crowd applauded his effort and he celebrated his first quarterfinal appearance in a Grand Slam event.

The chair umpire then told the players that the serve was a let. Norman knew it had been an ace and could not take the point, conceding it to Grosjean. The 16th-seeded Grosjean won the fourth-round match, 7-6 (7), 6-3, 0-6, 6-4, and will play Carlos Moya of Spain the quarterfinals.

“There was no let,” Norman said of the match point. “I couldn’t take the point because obviously he didn’t hear any let and I didn’t hear any let. Maybe the match would have turned around and I would have felt bad anyway at the end of the day when I leave the court. I go home, I want to feel good about myself. That’s the reason I gave it to him.”

Said Grosjean: “It was an ace, and the net machine was on, so it was a let. He gave me the point. It is very nice from him.”

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Apparently, one man has the courage to say no to Anna Kournikova. The Melbourne Age reported that Kournikova tried to jump the queue--cutting to the front of the line--at the transportation desk.

One of the drivers pulled up and was thrilled to see the local hero, Patrick Rafter, at the front of the line. Suddenly, Kournikova got into the back seat. Rafter politely told her, sorry, but, please get to the end of the line.

Kournikova got out of the car and Rafter hopped in and Kournikova went to the end of the queue.

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Capriati Wins: Jennifer Capriati rallied from a 4-2 second-set deficit to oust No. 4 Monica Seles in a quarterfinal. D9