Agassi eyes one more feat on clay

When Andre Agassi first competed on European clay in Rome in 1987 he decided that the surface was scarcely worth playing tennis on. "You'd play four great shots and still lose the point," he said, but duly adjusted, winning the French Open six years ago and adding the Italian Open in 2002.

It seems highly improbable, having recently passed his 35th birthday, that he will win the Roland Garros title again. However, it is not impossible that he will repeat his success at the Foro Italico this weekend, after reaching the semi-finals with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Slovakia's Dominik Hrbaty, who had beaten Tim Henman on Thursday.

"You know by this stage that you have to play your best tennis because you have no choice," the American said yesterday. "It's a question of being very disciplined and picking the right ball to take your chances."

Agassi admits to being less comfortable on a clay court these days, principally because in his latter years he has increasingly hit his shots flatter, with less margin for error. And there were moments against Hrbaty when, ever the perfectionist, he chastised himself over the execution of his groundstrokes.

That Agassi continues to get so obviously annoyed at his own small frailties emphasises why he continues to play on in his mid-30s, and will do so as long as he believes he can compete with and beat the current best. Clay is a surface he finds intrinsically tough, and yet he is still looking to get better. "I'm going to keep working at it," he smiled. "Another 35 years."

A blustery wind was whipping the clay into dust clouds on the centre court at the start of a quarter-final which saw Agassi reel off the first seven points without reply. Hrbaty, who lost to him in the 1999 French Open semi-finals when the Slovak was only 21 years old, could only stand and stare in something approaching wonderment.

After that Agassi found himself in a real scrap, although when it mattered most he always found an extra edge, notably in the extended rallies, all of great ferocity, which on several occasions went beyond 20 strokes and once to 43. It was not tennis of huge variety but compelling nevertheless.

So Agassi reached the last four without dropping a set. "I didn't expect that, these days especially," he admitted. Dog days they may be but there is life in the old dog yet.

In Berlin, Maria Sharapova's apparently remorseless climb towards the top of the rankings was brought to a sudden and surprising halt by an opponent who little more than a month ago was unsure whether she would ever be the same player again.

Justine Henin-Hardenne, the comeback heroine, beat Sharapova, the summit-seeker, in a fascinating and varied tussle between the two most in-form women players which carried the former triple grand slam title-holder to the semi-finals of the German Open.

Henin also became favourite to win her third clay-court title in succession with a fluctuating 6-2, 6-4 win in which she recovered from 0-2 in the first set and 2-4 in the second. She did it with a display of creative brilliance which suggested that since suffering a career-threatening virus she has taken out an insurance policy which involves adding fresh ingredients to what was already the most complete repertoire in the women's game.

There were several sublime moments which we had not seen from her before this week, in particular three exquisitely masked drop-shots to recover the early deficit and a series of magnetically accurate straight drives late on. But then we had not seen Henin on the centre court before. Three times she had been forced to survive long, noisy, windy battles on an outside court, a sequence of scheduling which she admitted disappointed her.

"Maybe I'll play Sharapova on an outside court too," she had said sarcastically. Instead it was the newly named Steffi Graf Stadium which saw Sharapova try to thump Henin to defeat only to become enmeshed in a web of instinctive counter-hits, stolen net approaches and killingly velvet touches.

"No, I am not disappointed," said Sharapova. "I am 18 and you guys think I should be No1 next week. Of course that would be an honour but if I am not No1 I am not going to go away and cry."