Roddick Advances Easily

This time, Andy Roddick’s path into the Australian Open semifinals was relatively smooth, not the way it was two years ago, when he needed five sets to win a classic five-hour marathon against Younes El Aynaoui of Morocco.

One hour and 35 minutes did the job. The second-seeded Roddick did not even require three complete sets as he defeated No. 26 Nikolay Davydenko of Russia, 6-3, 7-5, 4-1 (ret.), today in the Australian Open quarterfinals at Melbourne Park.

Davydenko was suffering from heat illness, needing treatment from the trainer in the second set. They tried different measures: an ice vest and an inhaler. His distress was not surprising. After his last match, Davydenko said he would not have been able to go four or five sets against Guillermo Canas of Argentina, whom he beat in three.

Roddick, who had 17 aces and double-faulted twice, is 4-0 against Davydenko and has never lost a set to him. In the semifinals, he will play either No. 3 Lleyton Hewitt of Australia or No. 9 David Nalbandian of Argentina.

Roddick is the last American in the men’s draw. Andre Agassi exited in quiet fashion at the hands of top-seeded and defending champion Roger Federer of Switzerland on Tuesday night in the quarterfinals.

The heavyweight atmosphere and lofty expectations vanished after the first set and early in the second. Federer’s advancement seemed inevitable and it took a little more than an hour and a half for that to become reality, as he defeated No. 8 Agassi, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4.

Federer will play Marat Safin of Russia in the semifinals, and Agassi was forced to deal with the usual questions, such as whether he will be back here in 2006.

After this loss, he waved to the crowd and blew a couple of kisses, but it didn’t come across with the sense of finality as it did when he lost to Safin last year.

Agassi, 34, said he wanted to make another trip to Melbourne.

“That would be my plan, but a year is a long time,” he said.

That sounded familiar. But his longtime trainer, Gil Reyes, was not dodging the questions either. He took solace in Agassi’s bitter disappointment at the loss.

“We talk about retirement a lot,” Reyes said. “We just have not made a plan to retire. There is no plan in place to retire. We just know it’s inevitable.... We hope to be back here next year.

” The level of his game is still way up there. He may not be in a class by himself, but it sure doesn’t take long to take roll.”

Agassi said he plans to play events at San Jose, Dubai, Indian Wells and Miami. That may not leave much room for Davis Cup.

Davis Cup might sound like a possibility in theory, but it could be difficult in terms of practicality.

Reyes did say he and Agassi were planning to take another shot on the clay at the French Open, but he wasn’t sure about the Davis Cup plan.

“We’ve talked about it. He’s going to have to think about it,” Reyes said.

“We’re going to have to really, really break that down.”

*

Well Served

Current Roger Federer winning streaks:

* Consecutive matches: 26 (last loss, 2004 Olympics second round to Tomas Berdych).

* Consecutive Grand Slam matches: 18 (last loss, 2004 French Open third round to Gustavo Kuerten).

* Consecutive Grand Slam sets: 21 (last set loss, 2004 U.S. Open quarterfinals fourth set to Andre Agassi).

* Consecutive matches vs. top 10: 24 (last loss, 2003 ATP Masters-Madrid to No. 1 Juan Carlos Ferrero).