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Agassi, Roddick advance at the SAP Open Andy Roddick withstood an admirable effort from an opponent determined to slug away at the American's booming serve.
The top-seeded Roddick went the distance to reach the SAP Open quarterfinals, beating Korean Hyung Taik-Lee 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 on Thursday night behind 17 aces.
Lee dictated the pace of the match in the second set — a rare feat against Roddick, whose inconsistent play hurt him in the middle set before he regained his composure to put the match away. Both had 22 unforced errors.
"I was definitely struggling out there tonight," Roddick said. "It was everything or nothing."
Second-seeded Andre Agassi also moved into Friday's quarterfinals with a 7-5, 6-1 victory over Kenneth Carlsen earlier Thursday.
Roddick, No. 3 in the world and the defending champion here, has beaten Lee in all but one of their eight career meetings. They last played at Memphis in 2003, when Roddick rallied from one set down and held on in a third-set tiebreaker.
The win was not devoid of temper tantrum. Trailing 2-0 in the second set with Lee serving, Roddick couldn't chase down a sharp crosscourt forehand. He proceeded to smash his racket into the court, then tossed it to a fan sitting nearby.
Nine of the 20 sets between these two have been decided 7-5 or in a tiebreaker. Roddick is hoping to get back on track in this tournament after a disappointing four-set semifinal exit at the Australian Open to runner-up Lleyton Hewitt.
Agassi overcame a slow start to defeat Carlsen to advance to the quarterfinals of the event for the 12th time in 13 appearances.
Aside from one hiccup on his record, Agassi is playing solid tennis so far in 2005.
Seeded second and ranked 10th in the world, Agassi beat Carlsen for the third time in as many meetings to improve to 6-1 this season. But it took the 34-year-old American some time to get comfortable against the left-hander and his slicing groundstrokes.
Agassi began attacking Carlsen's backhand, late in the first set, and the strategy eventually wore down the 31-year-old Dane who's ranked 88th in the world.
"Good idea, wasn't it?" Agassi said, smiling. "I got real patient. Sooner or later, it can become discouraging if the same dynamic point after point is happening. I felt if I could keep him pinned on the backhand side he'd be less able to hurt me with his forehand. I didn't want him to get comfortable."
Agassi hit several lobs for winners and also rushed the net on a few occasions to put pressure on Carlsen, but it was still tricky for both players because the balls used in this tournament are soft and, according to Agassi, "fluffier" than any others they play with all season.
"I was running too much," Carlsen said. "I tried to use my slice to take pace off a little bit. He was good with patience. Sometimes it's just a couple points here or there. I'm not saying I should have won the first set. He probably had more chances than I did."
In the opening game of the match, Agassi fell behind love-40 after hitting two backhands into the net and double faulting, but came back to win the game. He broke serve for the first time to clinch the set after Carlsen double-faulted at 30-all.
"It was very costly — a bad time to double fault," Carlsen said.
Agassi's lone loss this year came to Roger Federer in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open last month, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 — a performance Agassi would prefer to forget. Earlier Thursday, Cyril Saulnier used 19 aces to beat qualifier Tomas Zib 6-1, 7-6 (3) and advance to the quarterfinals. Saulnier hit three consecutive aces to end the first set, and ended four games in the second set with aces to reach the quarterfinals for the second straight year. He'll face fourth-seeded Vincent Spadea. In other second-round matches, No. 7 Jurgen Melzer defeated Xavier Malisse, 6-3, 6-3; No. 8 Max Mirnyi beat Kevin Kim, 6-1, 7-5; and Thomas Enqvist topped Robby Ginepri 6-3, 7-6 (1). Mirnyi, who has reached the semifinals in two tournaments this season, recorded seven aces and saved six break points. He meets third-seeded Tommy Haas in the quarterfinals.
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