Agassi turns on the style to boost ill-starred tournament

Andre Agassi has been around for a long time but has never been more important. The new players are not household names, the sport is in political crisis and the Nasdaq-100 Open here, labelled as a blueprint for the future of both tours, has been bedevilled by bad luck.

Hence almost everyone except Mark Philippoussis, the man he defeated here yesterday, was offering thanks for the continuing progress of Agassi.

By beating the Australian 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 to reach the last eight, Agassi maintained hopes that this ill-fated tournament might yet become memorable against all odds.

With an economic recession, a month of stifling record temperatures and the world No1 Lleyton Hewitt withdrawing with food poisoning, it is a wonder that attendances are down by only 3%. For that the organisers owe a debt of gratitude to Agassi, without whose qualities as a showman the stadium might have been half-empty.

At 3-3 in the second set, having lost the first, the pressure on Agassi was mounting. "I didn't feel in control. I felt like I needed to make something happen there," he said.

The American's response was typical. A few slight shuffles in his receiving position, a few small adjustments of his backswing, and all of a sudden he had made a few more returns and had broken for 5-3. He took the set and then exploited Philippoussis's tiredness to cruise home.

Afterwards Philippoussis said: "There's no doubt he's more mentally tough than me."

Agassi said of his opponent "He's an aggressive player, no question. He takes the match in his own hands on so many shots. So you always want to leave room for the possibility of him just missing. That's as good of a win as any, if you can get your opponent to miss."

In today's quarter-finals Agassi plays Younes El Aynaoui and the fourth-seeded Roger Federer faces the French Open champion Albert Costa after a 6-3, 6-2 victory over the normally reserved Sjeng Schalken, who was reduced to violent racket-hurling.

Among the women, Kim Clijsters thrashed Jelena Dokic 6-2, 6-0 in the quarter- finals to set up an encounter with Serena Williams, a rerun of the Australian Open when she choked after leading the world No1 5-1 in the final set and holding two match points.

Clijsters looks the only player capable of halting Williams. She has won 25 matches out of 26, is full of confidence and, in Dokic's words, "has raised the bar from the other players".

They are being helped by a northerly air-flow that has freshened the air and returned Key Biscayne to the sub-tropics. "I'd seen a few girls come into the locker room with some problems," said Clijsters.

But no more. Maybe rumours of plagues, suicides and the death of the professional game have been exaggerated after all.