[news] Agassi Survives, Malisse Continues Streak
Andre Agassi saved two match points and escaped narrowly with a 4-6, 7-6(4),
6-0 victory in the second round of the Delray Beach International Tennis
Championship. Also moving into the quarterfinals were defending champion
Xavier Malisse, Germany's Florian Mayer and Spain's Guillermo Garcia-Lopez.
Agassi found himself down quickly in this match despite an early break in the
first set. He was leading 4-2 when Delgado won four straight games and the
set to the surprise of the more than 5,000 who came out on a cool night in
South Florida.
In the 10th game of the second set with Agassi serving and Delgado leading
5-4, Agassi faced two match points but erased both with winning volleys. The
35-year-old went up 4-1 in the tie-breaker before closing it out 7-4.
The third set was all Agassi as Delgado won only eight points. The eight-time
Grand Slam champion was previously 3-0 against Delgado and had not dropped a
set in those matches.
"The match could easily have gone the other way," said Agassi. "In the second
set he was all over me. When he broke right back I knew I was in a tussle."
"I need to feel the pressure and the competition, " said Agassi when asked
why he played Delray Beach. "I'm excited to be playing here for the first
time."
Malisse continued on a path toward defending his Delray Beach title with a
6-2, 7-5 win over veteran Justin Gimelstob. The Belgian didn't lose serve in
the match, and in the second set broke Gimelstob in the final game to notch
his 18th win here. It will be the fifth time in seven Delray Beach
appearances that Malisse appears in the quarterfinals.
"I don't know what it is," said the 25-year-old about his uncanny success in
Delray Beach. "I feel relaxed, it's close to home. I have my own thing going
and I just like it."
Mayer reached his second quarterfinal of the year with a 7-5, 6-3 win over
Oliver Marach of Austria. The 22-year-old Mayer reached the quarterfinal in
Adelaide last month.
In the other second round singles match, Garcia-Lopez dashed the hopes of
local qualifier Todd Widom, 6-3, 6-2.
The No. 1seeded doubles team of Mark Knowles and Daniel Nestor needed the
first match tie-break held in the U.S. under the ATP's new doubles scoring
rules to defeat Kevin Kim and Hyung-Taik Lee. The two-time Grand Slam doubles
champions won the match tie-break 10-2 after splitting sets 6-7(4) and 6-1.
Under the new ATP doubles rules, a match tie-break is played at a set apiece.
The first team to 10 points in the tie-break wins (with a margin of 2). All
doubles competition in Delray Beach is also playing under six games to no-ad
scoring.
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