Agassi advances to play Roddick - 網球

June 13, 2003

LONDON (AP) -- Andre Agassi is set to be No. 1 again.

Agassi beat Xavier Malisse 6-3, 7-5 at Queen's Club on Friday to
reach the semifinals of the grass-court Wimbledon warmup.

The victory -- coupled with Lleyton Hewitt's 6-3, 6-4 loss to Sebastian
Grosjean -- means Agassi will move up one spot to No. 1 in next week's
rankings. Hewitt will slip to No. 2.

``I wasn't aware of that,'' Agassi said. ``It feels amazing to accomplish
it at this stage of my career, but I'd rather be No. 1 in my match
tomorrow. One at a time.''

Fellow American Andy Roddick is up next in the semifinals. Roddick beat
Taylor Dent 6-3, 7-6 (3).

Agassi is now in line be seeded No. 1 for Wimbledon, which begins June
23. The seeds will be announced Monday.

In April, the 33-year-old Agassi became the oldest man to be ranked No. 1.
But he fell from the top spot the following week after losing to David
Ferrer in the first round of the Italian Open.

In another quarterfinal, seventh-seeded Tim Henman of Britain beat Anthony
Dupuis of France 6-1, 6-4. He faces Grosjean in the semifinals Saturday.

Agassi, who won Wimbledon in 1992, went up a break in the first set when
Malisse double-faulted. He then withstood a barrage of aces from the
Belgian, who hit four in a row to take a 5-4 lead in the second set.

Malisse netted a forehand at 5-5 to give Agassi the only break and a
chance to serve out for a comfortable victory. In all, Malisse had 16
aces.

``There's a lot of different ways to hold serve,'' Agassi said. ``Hitting
four aces is definitely one of them.

``It's happened to me a few times. I don't enjoy it.''

Hewitt had won 18 straight matches at Queen's Club, and his last loss here
came to Pete Sampras in the semifinals in 1999.

``I had a lot of chances and didn't take them,'' said Hewitt, the defending
Wimbledon champion.

``He got confident enough and served well, and my serve wasn't quite working
today. That's one area I've got to try and work on next week. I don't think
I returned that well today either, and those are a couple of the big things
with grass-court tennis.''

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