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| May 11, 2002 | Saturday | Safar 27, 1423 |
Agassi masters Costa to reach semifinals
ROME, May 10: Andre Agassi breezed into the semifinals of the Rome Masters Series event with a 6-2 6-2 drubbing of Spain’s Albert Costa on Friday.
Agassi, who reached the final in Rome 13 years ago but has never won the $2.3 million event, will face Jiri Novak in the semifinals.
Agassi raced to a 5-1 lead over the Spaniard in the first set with a mixture of aggression and guile before an early break at the start of the second set put the American firmly in control.
Novak had to save three match points and breakpoints as he served for the match in his marathon 3-6 7-6 (9-7) 6-4 win over hotshot American James Blake.
Blake’s match points came and went in a second set tiebreaker with two on his own serve, but the 22-year-old lacked the big match experience to convert them.
The 27-year-old Novak, who reached the semifinals of the Australian Open in January, will play only his second Masters Series semifinal and first in Rome and said he was looking forward to playing Agassi.
Results (x denotes seeding):
Fourth round: Andre Agassi (USA x9) bt Albert Costa (Spa) 6-2, 6-2; Jiri Novak (Cze x14) bt James Blake (USA) 3-6, 7-6 (9/7), 6-4
BERLIN: Jennifer Capriati stayed on course to reclaim the world number one ranking with a hard-fought 6-3 5-7 6-4 victory over France’s Sandrine Testud in the quarterfinals of the German Open Friday.
Frenchwoman Amelie Mauresmo, who beat Capriati in last year’s final of the claycourt tournament, had earlier pulled out with a neck sprain before her scheduled quarterfinal match against Serena Williams.
Top seed Capriati, who will leapfrog fellow American Venus Williams to regain the number one spot if she wins Sunday’s final, was made to work for over two hours by a battling Testud.
After a smooth start, the Australian Open champion showed character by coming back from 4-0 down in the second set, only to be broken again to level the match.
Eighth seed Testud, who fell to Capriati in the third round here last year but had won their previous two meetings, was 5-1 down in the decider when she bravely survived three match points.
Capriati, warming up for the defence of her French Open title from May 27 in Paris, then dropped serve before earning a fourth match point, which she converted with Testud netting a forehand.
The bubbly 26-year-old, who made a significant breakthrough in the German capital by reaching the semifinals as a teenager 11 years ago, goes on to meet either fifth seed Justine Henin of Belgium or France’s Nathalie Dechy.
Serena Williams, the fourth seed, goes straight through to the semifinals where she will meet Israel’s Anna Smashnova, who defeated Daniela Hantuchova 1-6, 6-2, 6-3.
Mauresmo, the seventh seed, said she had sustained exactly the same injury last Sunday.
“After a couple of days it was okay and, hopefully, it will be the same this time,” she said, looking forward to playing in Rome next week.
Results:
Quarterfinals: Justine Henin (Bel x5) bt Nathalie Dechy (Fra) 6-0, 6-4; Anna Smashnova (Isr) bt Daniela Hantuchova (Svk x11) 1-6, 6-2, 6-3; Jennifer Capriati (USA x1) bt Sandrine Testud (Fra x8) 6-3, 5-7, 6-4; Serena Williams (USA x4) bt Amelie Mauresmo (Fra x7) w/o.—Reuters/AFP
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