Andre Agassi, seeking his sixth San Jose title, overcame an early barrage before finding his game en route to a 7-5, 6-1 win over Kenneth Carlsen at the 380,000 dollar ATP tournament. While Agassi was impressive on Thursday, his American compatriot Andy Roddick had to fight to reach the quarter-finals. In the opening game of the match, Agassi battled back from love-40 down. He eventually won the set with his lone break after Carlsen double-faulted.
Agassi, ranked 10th in the world, mixed in lobs and also picked his spots at the net to easily capture the second set over the 88th-ranked player in the world. The match lasted 75 minutes.
"I had to play him away from the net," said Agassi, who improved to 6-1 this season. "I had to hit the ball deep and keep him back. I was able to make him stay back and score some drop shots to keep him honest."
"Once he got the rhythm and confidence, he started to play better," Carlsen said. "I couldn't force him to do anything (he didn't want to do). He was forcing me to get further and further back off the court."
Agassi's lone loss this season was to Roger Federer in the quarter-finals of the Australian Open.
The next obstacle for Agassi will be No 7 seed Jurgen Melzer of Austria. Melzer rolled to a 6-3, 6-3 rout of Xavier Malisse of Belgium.
Roddick, the top seed and defending champion, needed three sets before outlasting stubborn South Korean Hyung-Taik Lee 6-3, 3-6, 6-2.
"In the second, I just felt badly. I don't know what happened," Roddick said.
COLLATED RESULTS:
(x denotes seeding):
(SECOND ROUND): Andy Roddick (USA x1) bt Hyung-Taik Lee (KOR) 6-3, 3-6, 6-2; Andre Agassi (USA x2) bt Kenneth Carlsen (DEN) 7-5, 6-1; Jurgen Melzer (AUT x7) bt Xavier Malisse (BEL) 6-3, 6-3; Max Mirnyi (BLR x8) bt Kevin Kim (USA) 6-1, 7-5; Cyril Saulnier (FRA) bt Tomas Zib (CZE) 6-1, 7-6 (7/3); Thomas Enqvist (SWE) bt Robby Ginepri (USA) 6-3, 7-6 (7/1).
BUENOS AIRES OPEN:
RESULTS(x denotes seeding):
(SECOND ROUND): Rafael Nadal (SPA x7) bt Potito Starace (ITA) 6-1, 6-3; Jose Acasuso (ARG) bt Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (SPA) 6-4, 6-3.
WTA PARIS INDOOR OPEN:
RESULT (x denotes seeding):
(Quarter-finals): Tatiana Golovin (FRA) bt Silvia Farina Elia (ITA x7) 6-0 retired.
WTA HYDERABAD OPEN:
HYDERABAD: Results from the 140,000-dollar WTA Hyderabad Open here on Friday:
(Semi-finals): Sania Mirza (IND) bt Maria Kirilenko (RUS x8) 6-4, 7-6 (7/4); Alyona Bondarenko (UKR x9) w/o Anna Lena Groenefeld (GER x2).
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