September 6, 2002	Friday	Jamadi-us-Saani27,1423

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window)

NEW YORK, Sept 5: He was mauled and savaged by a man called ‘The Beast’ but still Andre Agassi stood his own in a cacophonous New York arena.

With an arsenal consisting of razor-sharp reflexes and a quicksilver brain, the American slew mighty Belarussian Max Mirnyi 6-7 6-3 7-5 6-3 Wednesday night to reach his eighth U.S. Open semifinal.

It was journey into the last four that required all the 32-year-old’s wit, guile and brute force against a 6 ft 5 ins serving machine who eventually ran out of rockets.

While Agassi was raising it to thrill a home crowd with a lion-hearted display, New York-born Jennifer Capriati’s nerves got the better of her and the third seed choked her way to defeat against Amelie Mauresmo.

Big stage nerves and a potent French curse felled the Australian Open champion as she let victory slip from between her fingers to hand Mauresmo her first U.S. Open semifinal spot 4-6 7-6 6-3.

Capriati admitted she ‘choked’ — players’ shorthand for succumbing to nerves — as she allowed Mauresmo record a hard-fought victory in two hours 17 minutes.

The result gave Mauresmo, a powerful baseliner from the small French town of Bornel, a fourth win in seven matches against Capriati.

Mauresmo has now won their last three meetings, including the Wimbledon quaterfinals in July and the Montreal final last month.

The 23-year-old Frenchwoman will next face defending champion Venus Williams in the semifinals after she crushed sixth seed Monica Seles 6-2 6-3.

The other semifinals sees Wimbledon and French Open champion Serena Williams — Venus’s sister — face Lindsay Davenport, the last non-Williams to win at Flushing Meadows when she lifted the title in 1998.

In the men’s draw, top seed and defending champion Lleyton Hewitt put an end to Younes El Aynaoui’s plans of an upset, beating the Moroccan 6-1 7-6 4-6 6-2 to reach the last four.

El Aynaoui finished his fourth round match at 0214 EDT (0614 GMT) on Tuesday morning and simply could not last the pace against one of the most tenacious battlers in the game.

But surely not as good as Agassi, Hewitt’s next opponent, after a night of high drama on Arthur Ashe stadium court.

The shaven-headed fighter stands a full 16 centimetres shorter than his Belarussian opponent, but Agassi looks up to nobody on a tennis court.

The pair traded fearsome blows — Mirnyi’s serve and Agassi’s return — for the first two bone-rattling sets which they split.

Toe-to-toe, the pair slugged it out until a moment of sportsmanship in the third set marked a watershed in the contest.

At 4-4 and deuce, as Mirnyi stretched up to power a first serve, a voice in the crowd screamed out.

Mirnyi missed, returned to the baseline to deliver a more tame version of the serve when Agassi stopped him and told him to take the first one again.

Mirnyi, smiled, thumbed his nose to the voice in the crowd and promptly held service for a 5-4 lead.

Three games later, though, Agassi had snatched it with some fierce groundstrokes and was leading two sets to one.

Still Mirnyi charged at his tormentor, but Agassi threw everything straight back at him.

He broke in the fifth game for a 3-2 lead and held to stretch 4-2 ahead as Mirnyi’s hopes receded.

Mirnyi held once more but was broken for the match when Agassi latched onto yet another Mirnyi serve, taking it early and forcing the volley error.

Results: (x denotes seed):

MEN

Quarterfinals: Lleyton Hewitt (Aus x1) bt Younes El Aynaoui (Mor x20) 6-1, 7-6 (7/5), 4-6, 6-2; Andre Agassi (USA x6) bt Max Mirnyi (Blr x32) 6-7 (5/7), 6-3, 7-5, 6-3

WOMEN

Quarterfinals: Venus Williams (USA x2) bt Monica Seles (USA x6) 6-2, 6-3; Amelie Mauresmo (Fra x10) bt Jennifer Capriati (USA x3) 4-6, 7-6 (7/5), 6-3.—Reuters/AFP