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Agassi ready to roll ahead By MaliVai Washington Special to ESPN.com Andre Agassi is playing typical tennis for him. He comes out in a tournament and starts rolling over people. He doesn't lack confidence anyway, but when he plays like this his confidence grows.
When you play a confident Agassi, there's nothing you can do short of jumping the net and tackling him to beat him. Agassi walks out thinking that a guy like Paul-Henri Mathieu, who he'll meet in the fourth round, is a guy he should beat. The match is likely to be on center court and Mathieu doesn't have any experience on center court. The sheer magic of the place and being in the moment will carry Agassi through this match. Here's a look at the rest of the draw.
Lleyton Hewitt (1), Australia, vs. Guillermo Canas (15) Argentina
On the other hand, I've always thought that there's no reason for Hewitt to not have a ton of success on clay. With his quarterfinal appearance last year, he may be ready to defeat a clay-courter and prove that he's one of the best on clay.
Gustavo Kuerten (7), Brazil, vs. Albert Costa (20), Spain
A couple of years ago, Costa had a great opportunity to advance to the semifinals, but he fell in the quarters. Costa isn't getting any younger. Everyone knows he's a tough player on clay, but he has this mental block so that when he faces the tough guys on clay he can't get past them. The opportunity is here again. If he can get past Kuerten, he has another great shot to get out of the quarters playing against either Hewitt or Canas. This is a gut-check for Costa. Kuerten has already shown this year that he's willing to fight through to defend his title.
Tommy Haas (3), Germany, vs. Andre Pavel (22), Romania This will be one of the best matches of the tournament so far in terms of pure shotmaking ability. They played each other at the Tennis Masters in Canada and it was an incredible match. These two players have the best one-handed backhands in the game -- only a couple of players in the world have better backhands than these two.
This is the year, though, for Haas to make his move and win a major. I don't see Pavel winning a major. This will be a great test for Haas to see if can keep his nerve. He's been able to get ahead quickly in his matches and that's a help.
Alex Corretja (18), Spain, vs. Mariano Zabaleta, Argentina
As good as Zabaleta is on clay, Corretja should beat him. Corretja has been in these situations before having been in two French Open finals, and he knows about the pressure. Zabeleta doesn't have that experience.
Gaston Gaudio (31), Argentina, vs. Juan Carlos Ferrero (11), Spain
He'll have a good test in Gaudio, whose biggest test would have been against Hicham Arazi if he hadn't retired in their match. Gaudio hasn't been tested yet this week.
Xavier Malisse, Belgium, vs. Sebastien Grosjean (10), France He's going up against Malisse, who has not fulfilled his potential. As a young player, everyone thought Malisse could be a major threat on the tour, but it never panned out. Part of it was that he was never able to handle the pressure from the expectations. It will be interesting to see how he handles the pressure here. He's never been to the quarterfinals of a major before, so this will be the biggest match he's played in a major in a long time.
With Grosjean being in the semis last year, he's not excited about being in the fourth round. He's looking at getting far into the second week. Farther than he's been before.
Arnaud Di Pasquale, France, vs. Marat Safin (2), Russia Safin's one of those players that the less he thinks and can get out there and bang the ball, the better he is. Patrick Rafter is like that. He doesn't think about strategy -- just let him play tennis. But if Safin starts thinking about it, he gets frustrated. He's going to play Di Pasquale who the crowd will favor. There have been times when Safin reacts badly if the crowd is against him. If Di Pasquale gets off to a good start, gets the crowd on his side, he'll have the ability to beat Safin. It would be one of the major surprises of the tournament.
Logic would say to pick Safin, but he self-destructed in the finals of Hamburg. A lot of this match hangs on how well Di Pasquale feeds off the crowd. No question, on paper Safin is the favorite, but you count Di Pasquale out in this match. This will be one of the most interesting fourth-round matches. |
Fernandez: Capriati, Venus to get first tests in fourth round Agassi crushes another Spaniard Hewitt reaches fourth round |
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