US Open, DAY 11

US dreams dashed as Agassi, Roddick run out of Open
Andy: 'It's been a pretty good year but I need to step up. I need to step up and win those'

By Matthew Cronin, TennisReporters.net

Art Seitz

For the first time since 1986, no American male will be in the US Open semifinals.

FROM THE US OPEN – In what was certainly the darkest day for American men's tennis this year, Andy Roddick and Andre Agassi were sent packing out of the US Open quarterfinals Thursday by a classy Swiss and a cool-headed Swede. All hopes that the defending US Open champion and popular legend would meet in the final were dashed on windy day when top ranked Roger Federer proved once again that he can handle any condition in a 6-3, 2-6, 7-5, 3-6, 6-3 win over the 34-year-old Agassi; and the 22-year-old Roddick showed in a 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 2-6, 6-4 loss to Joachim Johansson that he still has a lot to learn about maintaining his composure.

It's the first time since 1986 that no American male reached the US semifinals. That's not an out-and-out disaster for US men's tennis, but it sure won't look pretty this coming weekend. Roddick will be around contending for big titles for years to come and given good health, Agassi will likely made his name heard again in 2005. But both had huge opportunities in Flushing Meadows to redeem what were ho-hum years and both crashed and burned in curious ways.

Even though he walked out to face Roger Federer down two sets to one on Thursday, Agassi looked like he was headed to the semifinals after he won the fourth set, as Federer was completely confounded by gusts that reached 39-mph and Andre seemed to secure that he could find ways to keep the balls in the court in very ugly conditions.

And why not? He grew up in Las Vegas and Florida, where the gales and dust storms frequently coming whipping through the windscreens. But Federer kept fiddling with his game until he discovered a way to right his ball toss, keep his backhand from flying and his forehand still penetrating. In the sixth game of the set with Agassi serving with the wind howling at his back, Federer floated a backhand slice to the mid court area, which Agassi yanked wide with a crosscourt forehand. Just like in three years prior when he couldn't convert on crucial points against Pete Sampras and Juan Carlos Ferrero, Agassi looked indecisive and cost himself a match. The eight-time Grand Slam champion has been very close to winning his ninth Grand Slam title the past 18 months, but that old confidence is graying. Federer's confidence is blue-sky all the way.

"I have a good game to match up against him,' Agassi said. "I can force him to play his best and that is a credit to his standard. What you see out there is a great player who is bound to have some close matches. But the quality of his game allows him to pull through most of those."

HIP GETS RICKETY
Limping down the hall after his loss (his bad hip appears to be acting up again), Agassi considered the thought that had the match not been stopped for rain the night before, he may have pulled out the last two sets with the roaring night time crowd behind him. "Yeah, well, we'll never know," he said. "We both had to deal a new day and he dealt with it better than I did."

What we do now is that contrary to most analysts' belief at the beginning of this year, Agassi won't retire at year's end. He's going to give it another go in 2005 until he can't push the great ones any more. He still thinks he might be able to knock them over. If his chances at winning the US Open were at 30 percent coming in this year, he'll be at no better than 15 percent next when he arrives as a 35-year-old. Just don't tell him that.

"If I'm out there forcing the best players in the world to play their best tennis, I'm going to keep going as long as I feel I have a realistic hope of putting together great matches and finding a way to win," Agassi said. "My game plan is to play until I can't do it. I believe with that focus, I can still do that."

RODDICK LOST HIS COMPOSURE
Roddick lost his composure in the fifth set of a match he surely should have won. Johannson is a Swedish Roddick clone with a huge serve (he nailed 30 aces to Andy's 34) and a gigantic forehand (he whacked 23 forehand winners to Andy's 10). But Roddick had huge momentum going into the fifth set and was into almost every ones of his foe's service games. But he couldn' covert a break point in the third game when Johannson whipped a forehand winner. All of a sudden, he couldn't get his backhand returns deep enough to keep Johansson from controlling the center of the court. Then he began to dispute line calls and carried on a running critique of the lines people and chair umpire for a good seven games.

Ron Cioffi/TR.net

The big Swede banks away at Andy Roddick.

He had an open look at a crosscourt backhand passing shot to break the Swede to 5-4 and buried it into the net. The match essentially ended there because in the next game, he played quite sloppy. The man who had won 29 straight points on his serve through the third and fourth sets put himself into a deep hole that he almost climbed out of, but on Johansson's third match point, Roddick backed off a backhand and floated it long.

His coach, Brad Gilbert, hung his head in dismay. His agent, Ken Myerson, began stomping his feet in anger. Roddick left the court so upset that her proceeded to run laps inside the stadium hallways trying to burn the bad energy off.
"I don't feel good," he said. "But at the same time I fought to the end and gave it everything I had. It's disheartening. It's disappointing. I'll recover. Right now I don't feel great but if I did, there would be something wrong."

Roddick says that the only thing that will completely salvage his year is a US Davis Cup title. He's had an okay 2004, but can't be too pleased that he will end the year Slam-less and without a shot at Federer on his home court on Ashe Stadium.

"It's been a pretty good year but I need to step up. I lost a couple heartbreakers at the Slam this year," said Roddick who fell in five sets to Marat Safin in Australia, to Federer in the Wimbledon final and then to Johansson on Thursday night. "I need to step up and win those. It's easier said that done. But losses like this, they make me hungrier."

According to Agassi and Roddick, it's now Federer's tournament to lose. Federer will face Britain's Tim Henman, who's had another spectacular tournament, but doesn't have Federer's love of the big stage. Johansson will face '01 US champ Lleyton Hewitt, his girlfriend Jaslyn's brother, who hasn't lost a set in the tournament and is perennially ravenous.

But if Federer plays to the level that saw him win the Australian Open and Wimbledon, he'll notch Slam crown No. 3 of 2004. While Federer may not have American blood, other Europeans have developed an affinity with the US Open crowds, including Sweden's Mats Wilander, the last man to win three Slams in a year.

In case you were wondering. Agassi dismissed any notion that Federer isn't New York-tough enough to win the title.
"From what I've seen of him, there's no indication that he can't handle the environment here," said Agassi. "He keeps proving himself everywhere he goes."