Agassi crosses ut the X-Man - 網球

Agassi crosses ut the X-Man
By Matthew Cronin
Friday, May 30, 2003

In another splendid performance on Philippe Chatrier Court, second seed
Andre Agassi withstood a strong challenge from the creative Belgian
Xavier Malisse and overcame his foe 6-4 7-5 7-5 to gain the fourth round
on Friday.

But Agassi's last standing American male compatriot, Vince Spadea, fell
in four sets to big Dutchman Martin Verkerk 7-5 4-6 2-6 5-7.

Playing a smart, straight-ahead match where he didn't allow the
multi-faceted Malisse to draw him into a shooting gallery, Agassi
comfortably took care of all the big points, kept Malisse off balance
with his serve and was extremely penetrating from inside the baseline.

"He's an incredibly talented player," Agassi said. "He has a lot of
different shots, moves really well and is able to use your pace and
come up with his own pace. He can play defense and offense. I had to
make sure that I executed my game every shot, or you're in trouble."

Malisse wowed the crowd with a number of running forehand winners and
flat, seeing-eye backhands. But while the Belgian registered significantly
more winners than Agassi did, he committed 67 unforced errors to only 43
from Agassi.

"I was controlling the ball a lot better," said Agassi, who was equally
lethal off both wings, cracking 11 forehand and 11 backhand winners. "When
it left my racket, the shot was actually going where I told it to. That's
a nice luxury because it determines whether you are going to stay in an
offensive position or start retreating a little."

Most importantly, Agassi kept his foot on the gas, fighting off nine
break points and not allowing Malisse to turn the match around, like
Croatian Mario Ancic did to him in the second round.

"I conducted the match very well, played well at the right time and at
the end of each set, finished it off," said Agassi, who will play
Brazil's Flavio Saretta in the next round. "That's a huge step forward
to me from the last time I played."

For the second straight year, the 33-year-old Agassi is the only American
to make to into the round of 16. None of the touted young Americans - Andy
Roddick, James Blake and Mardy Fish - showed that they are ready to play
big-time clay court tennis this week.

Agassi's generation of former Roland-Garros titlists Michael Chang and
Jim Courier were all making waves at Roland-Garros when they were in their
teens and early 20s. But Agassi said that it's a different age now.

"Everybody hits the ball pretty big now, you have to play both ends of
the court, offense and defense," Agassi said. "It requires more work,
thinking, and discipline, in shot selection especially. That's only going
to come with experience."

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