Agassi Win Is Big on Drama

The perfect way to sum up 2 hours 51 minutes, a five-set epic of scintillating edge-of-the-seat tennis, actually came from the man who lost in Arthur Ashe Stadium.

After it was over, James Blake and Andre Agassi embraced. And Blake leaned over and had the best summary of their evening together, telling Agassi, “It couldn’t have been more fun to lose.”

The seventh-seeded Agassi completed a task that almost seemed Sisyphean, defeating Blake, 3-6, 3-6, 6-3, 6-3, 7-6 (6), in the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open.

They started playing on Wednesday night and finished Thursday morning, New York time. The final set lasted 43 minutes and ended after 1 a.m. EDT

Agassi pointed out that fact, noting that 20,000 fans had stayed -- and were frequently on their feet -- until almost 1:15 in the morning.

“I wasn’t the winner,” he said. “Tennis was.” And then some.

The 35-year-old had accomplished something for the first time in his legendary career. For all his achievements, Agassi had never won a match at the U.S. Open after losing the first two sets. And this is his 20th U.S. Open.

Not only did he lose the first two sets and fall behind a service break in the third, Agassi had to climb back one more time in the fifth set, erasing a 3-5 deficit. Blake served for the match at 5-4 and Agassi stayed alive by breaking him at 15 when Blake hit a forehand wide.

A tiebreaker seemed inevitable. The winner was in doubt until Agassi hit a forehand winner on his second match point. Two minutes before that, Blake had saved the first match point with a gutsy winner down the line, as he ran around his forehand.

Agassi’s courage was out there for the world to see in between his two match points. At 6-6 in the tiebreaker, with Agassi serving, he hit a drop shot, which Blake retrieved, and Agassi passed him with a backhand winner.

“James is a guy that runs on high octane,” Agassi said. “You know, he’s a fighter jet. He burns the fuel fast and furious. And he’s gotten much better with that over the years.

“But he plays so big and so fast that if an edge does come off, it’s a big relief, because he just flies around the court.”

Agassi was asked if he surprises himself.

“It’s all a bit surreal,” he said. “I get out there and I try to work and I come off the court and many times in my career I just feel like it’s been a dream. And that’s the way it feels here.”

After all this, Agassi earned a semifinal match against another American, Robby Ginepri, on Saturday. In the afternoon quarterfinal, Ginepri defeated No. 8 Guillermo Coria of Argentina, 4-6, 6-1, 7-5, 3-6, 7-5, in 3 hours 3 minutes.

Ginepri, who had never gone past the third round here, has played three consecutive five-setters. The other two were against Tommy Haas of Germany and No. 13 Richard Gasquet of France, both at night.

In his previous match, Coria seemed as though he was on the verge of coming to blows against his opponent, Nicolas Massu of Chile. There was none of that visible animosity against Ginepri, though Coria was given a warning for an audible obscenity in the second game of the fifth set, which came after he double faulted.

Coria was spotted applauding one of Ginepri’s winners, and they shared a moment of mutual respect in the fifth game of the fifth set, trading drop shots, with Coria winning the point as he flicked a backhand into the open court.

The players acknowledged each other with a high-five at the net.

Blake and Ginepri have been jockeying for position all summer. Ginepri won at Indianapolis, and Blake reached the final at Washington and won New Haven, Conn. Their progress was almost identical through the draw until Wednesday.

Like Blake, Ginepri has been in the way of the Agassi aura at the U.S. Open.

“I played him two out of three night matches at the U.S. Open, so I’ve kind of been in this situation before here and I know what to expect,” he said. “It’s going to be a rough, grueling match again. But he’s the king, and I know that, you know, I’ve got to take my opportunities if it’s there when they come.”