NEW YORK, Sept 7: Andy Roddick hauled himself into his first ever grand slam final with the sort of inspired comeback that had earlier proved beyond an ageing Andre Agassi in the semifinals of the U.S. Open on Saturday.

American top seed Agassi, the winner of eight majors in a glittering career, tried in vain to retrieve a two-set deficit against third seed Juan Carlos Ferrero before going down 6-4 6-3 3-6 6-4 to the Spaniard.

Later in the day, the future of American tennis announced its timely arrival with Roddick’s 6-7 3-6 7-6 6-1 6-3 triumph over gutsy Argentine David Nalbandian.

Roddick, whose 38 aces on Saturday was his highest ever return in a match, was forced to save one match point before prevailing in front of a partisan Flushing Meadows crowd happy to gorge on three hours 31 minutes of theatre.

Roddick’s own heroics were no less significant, for they helped ease the 21-year-old’s memories of failing in the last four at both the Australian Open and Wimbledon earlier in 2003.

Boasting a 17-match winning streak ahead of his clash with Nalbandian, Roddick was heavily favoured to emerge.

He had also spent just nine hours, 56 minutes on court on his way to the semi-finals, compared to Nalbandian’s 15 hours two minute workload.

Moreover, because of rain delays this week, the 13th seed had been forced to play back-to-back on Thursday and Friday, while Roddick had enjoyed a rest day on Thursday.

But as Nalbandian overcame a wrist injury to establish a two set lead, it appeared as though an agitated Roddick was buckling under the pressure of expectation.

Nalbandian, however, still worked him around like a puppet on a string from the baseline and at 6-5 in the third set tiebreak, the 2002 Wimbledon runner-up was one point away from his second career slam final.

Suddenly Roddick stirred, blasting a service winner followed by an ace before claiming the breaker 9-7.

His intensity and the crowd’s interest aroused, Roddick secured the fourth set in 24 minutes and went toe-to-toe with a wearying Nalbandian until 4-3 in the decider.

Then, at 15-40 in the eighth game, Nalbandian thought he had redeemed himself with a backhand pass — but the ball was agonisingly called out and Roddick had a priceless break.

He made no mistake serving out for the match, doubling over more in relief than joy when Nalbandian strayed wide on his first match point.— Reuters