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Agassi removes Dent from Open

Paradorn Srichaphan of Thailand looks up to the sky during his match against number six seeded Lleyton Hewitt of Australia at the US Open Tennis Championships in Flushing Meadows, New York, Tuesday. Their match ended up being delayed. PHOTO: AFP

After surviving two rain delays, Andre Agassi defeated unseeded American Taylor Dent 6-7 (5), 6-4, 7-5 in their fourth round match Wednesday after Dent retired due to tightness in his lower right hamstring.

With the men's draw further behind, Open officials pushed back top-seeded Belgian Kim Clijsters' quarterfinal date with Frenchwoman Amelie Mauresmo, later suspending it for the day all together. It's been quite a few days for Agassi.

First, the rain played against him, then it played in his favor. Agassi originally was going to have to play three straight days, but when his match was rained out Monday, it gave him an extra 24 hours to recover after playing both Saturday and Sunday.

He finished his third-round match against Yevgeny Kafelnikov of Russia on Sunday, a day after it was suspended by rain with Agassi up a set and down one game in the second. Agassi called it "a mistake, an oversight in judgment" that his Saturday match was not finished later that day.

"These conditions affect everybody," he said Tuesday. "It's just a question of trying to get the most out of yourself. A lot of years of experience, but it's still difficult to do."

Only three matches have been completed in three days. Several were in progress late Tuesday when the rain started again and play was officially halted for the night -- just before 11pm local time.

Agassi earned his 200th victory in Grand Slam play. If he wins the tournament, he'll tie Pete Sampras at 203 wins.

"To see him injured is outright disappointing for everybody," Agassi said of Dent. "It doesn't matter if it's my 200th or first match. That's not way you want it to end. It started to become apparent he was struggling with the leg. I was surprised he was unable to continue."

The 22-year-old Dent said he aggravated his leg several days ago.

Italy's Francesca Schiavone and Ai Sugiyama of Japan were sent home Monday evening just before they were to start a first-set tiebreaker.

"For me it was very lucky, because I was playing so bad. I was feeling so bad," Schiavone said.

They got sent home midway through their match again Tuesday, with No. 15 Sugiyama leading the 29th-seeded Schiavone 7-6 (5), 5-4.

No. 7 Anastasia Myskina of Russia led Mary Pierce of France 7-6 (2), 2-0 in another match that was stopped in progress Monday and resumed for less than an hour Tuesday.

When play ended, French Open champion Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain won the first set 6-2 against America's Todd Martin, Argentine No. 5 Guillermo Coria led Sweden's Jonas Bjorkman 6-2, 2-0, and 2001 Open champion Lleyton Hewitt of Australia trailed No. 11 Paradorn Srichaphan of Thailand 4-3 on serve in the first set.

Clijsters and No. 5 Mauresmo were sent home at 5pm.

Three other singles matches were pushed back until Wednesday: American No. 3 Lindsay Davenport versus Argentine No. 24 Paola Suarez, No. 2 Roger Federer of Switzerland vs. No. 13 David Nalbandian of Argentina, and Spanish No. 7 Carlos Moya versus Moroccan No. 22 Younes El Aynaoui.

Eighty-seven of the 95 matches on Tuesday's schedule -- including all doubles, junior and senior draw matches -- were moved.

Stefano Capriati doesn't have to concern himself with helping his star daughter stay alert when the weather wreaks havoc on a tennis tournament's schedule the way it has at the US Open.

"They stay focused themselves," he said of Jennifer and the other players. "They're athletes, they know. The young girls, you tell them. They need to try to keep quiet and relax and rest. Or go in the gym and train. Don't eat too much."

On Monday, Jennifer Capriati survived three rain delays on the way to defeating hard-serving Russian Elena Dementieva 6-2, 7-5 to reach the quarterfinals for the third straight year.

Twins

America's Bryan brothers -- Bob and Mike -- have dealt with long delays before. They had a three-day rain delay at Wimbledon in 1999, and left the court on serve in the fifth set. They wound up losing 10-8.

"We've had this plenty of times," Mike said as the twins wandered the halls in the main stadium Tuesday.
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