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Agassi struggles to beat Calatrava

Second seeded Andre Agassi of the US returns a shot to Alex Calatrava of Spain during US Men's Clay Court Championships in Houston, Texas on Thursday. PHOTO: AP

Second-seeded Andre Agassi rallied from a loss in the first set to beat Alex Calatrava 3-6, 6-4, 7-5 Thursday and advance to the quarterfinals of the US Men's Clay Court Championships.

Agassi appeared to have the match under control when he broke the Spaniard in the sixth game of the third set and took a 4-2 lead. But his serve failed him in the next game as he double-faulted twice and was broken.

Calatrava held in the eighth game and pulled even at 4-4 by serving a love game.

"I threw up a couple of double faults at a bad time, leading 4-2," Agassi said. "I was feeling too good and got too aggressive.

Agassi will next face France's Sebastien Grosjean who beat Oscar Hernandez of Spain 6-4, 5-7, 6-2.

Defending champion Tommy Haas of Germany will play Jurgen Melzer of Austria and top-seeded Andy Roddick will meet Luis Horna of Peru in other Friday quarterfinals matches.

Third-seeded Carlos Moya, No. 4 Guillermo Coria and No. 5 Guillermo Canas were ousted in the third round.

Moya became the second former champion after Albert Costa to lose to Max Mirnyi of Belarus, 6-4, 6-4.

Coria, last week's Monte Carlo Masters runner-up, was beaten by Argentine countryman Agustin Calleri 6-4, 6-7 (5), 7-6 (2).

Canas, another Argentine, squandered two match points and fell to Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic 6-7 (6), 7-6 (2), 7-6 (5) in a three-hour thriller.

Friday's quarterfinals feature a mouthwatering matchup between French Open and Open Seat Godo winners Gaston Gaudio and Juan Carlos Ferrero, Monte Carlo champion Rafael Nadal against Agustin Calleri of Argentina, Mirnyi versus Russia's Nikolay Davydenko, and Stepanek meeting Stanislas Wawrinka of Poland.

Second-seeded Gaudio topped 13th-seeded David Ferrer of Spain 6-3, 6-4.

China's women breezed past Singapore 3-0 yesterday in Fed Cup Asia-Oceania Group I preliminary league competition, setting up an encounter with host India.

China's world No. 69 Zheng Jie outplayed Singapore's Lee Wei-ping 6-1, 6-1 and 41st-ranked Li Na blanked Ong Shao-fang 6-0, 6-0.

Li Ting and Sung Tian-tian reigned 6-0, 6-1 in the doubles against Singapore's duo of Lee and Ng Yun-ling.

India, seeded third in the competition from which one team will advance to the World Group playoffs, faced no challenge from Kazakhstan in recording the second victory in the round-robin league.

Second-seeded Australia, seeking to regain its place in the World Group, trounced Taiwan 3-0 to set up Friday's encounter with fourth-ranked South Korea for a spot in the competition final.

Australia's Sophie Ferguson swept aside Chao Hsiao-han of Taiwan 6-1, 6-2 in the opening singles before world's 55th-ranked Samantha Stosur thrashed Chen Yi 6-0, 6-2.

Stosur and Bryanne Stewart's doubles combination then coasted to a 6-1, 6-3 victory against Lu Yen-hua and Wang Ting-wen.
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