ROME -- Andre Agassi, Andy Roddick and James Blake became the first trio of Americans in the round of 16 at the Italian Open since 1995.

To advance even further, they won't have to face the world's top two players and the defending champion, who all lost.

In second-round action Wednesday, Blake beat Andrea Gaudenzi 3-6, 6-4, 6-1, Roddick overcame Andrei Pavel 1-6, 6-4, 6-3, and Agassi breezed past Michel Kratochvil 6-0, 6-1 in 43 minutes -- the fastest match on the ATP Tour this year. It's also the quickest victory for Agassi since he beat Wayne Ferreira 6-1, 6-0 in Washington, D.C., in 1998, also in 43 minutes.

Other top players had a much rougher time on the red clay at this Tennis Masters Series event, a major tuneup for the French Open. No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt, No. 2 Gustavo Kuerten -- a three-time winner of the French Open -- and 2001 Italian Open champ Juan Carlos Ferrero were eliminated in the second round.

Fourth-seeded Yevgeny Kafelnikov also was upset, eliminated by Wayne Ferreira 6-4, 4-6, 6-2.

Hewitt lost to Carlos Moya 6-3, 6-2, and the Australian's frustration was evident in the second set. Hewitt was penalized a point when he tossed a ball at the chair umpire after a long argument over a disputed call.

"In my opinion, 99.9 percent of the time in that situation they play a let," Hewitt said. "It probably didn't make much difference in the match anyway."

Moya, the 1998 French Open champion, beat Hewitt for the second time in less than a month.

"He's got a good first serve and gets a lot of cheap points off it," Hewitt said. "A lot of clay-court specialists just try to start the point with their serve. He's got a good chance at the French."

Kuerten, still making his way back from hip surgery, lost to Albert Montanes of Spain 6-4, 3-6, 6-1. Kuerten converted only one of six break-point chances.

Ferrero was beaten by Ivan Ljubicic 7-5, 6-2 in a match that was delayed by rain and played on an outer court.

"I'm a little bit fed up that I had to play on that court," Ferrero said. "The other courts were covered and that court was not, so it's been receiving water all day."

Agassi and Davis Cup team members Roddick and Blake gave the United States three men in Rome's third round since Jeff Tarango, MaliVai Washington, and Michael Chang did it seven years ago.

There might have been a fourth this year, but Pete Sampras lost his opening match Tuesday.

In a match that was delayed 2 hours, 45 minutes by rain, the 13th-seeded Roddick had just three winners in the first set. Pavel hit 16 winners.

"He reacted better than I did," Roddick said. "I tried to keep fighting though and came out with the win."

The 19-year-old Roddick seemed to have trouble with the soft surface early in the match, repeatedly looking down at his feet as Pavel's winners went untouched.

After trading breaks midway through the second set, Roddick's groundstrokes wore on Pavel and he broke the Romanian to even the match.

At 4-3 in the third set, Roddick hit a backhand crosscourt passing shot to break serve and then held on for the win.

Also advancing to the third round were seventh-seeded Tommy Haas, who beat Juan Ignacio Chela 7-5, 6-1, and 10th-seeded Sebastien Grosjean, who defeated David Nalbandian 5-7, 6-4, 7-5.