Agassi Stardust is Rubbing Off on Young Ginepri

Absent friends continued to dominate this year's US Open. There remains almost as much talk about the Williams sisters, who are both injured, and Pete Sampras, whose retirement jamboree seemed to draw every scrap of emotion out of the tournament virtually before it began, as the live tennis. And as usual the New York tabloids are bemoaning the lack of personalities.

But the crowds continue to roll up in record numbers, giving the lie to any notion that the sport has become boring or that modern racket technology is ruining the game as a spectacle.

It was the men in black who caught the attention as the sun set over Manhattan, and Flushing Meadows became bathed in floodlight. Enter Mr Electricity, Andre Agassi, on to the Arthur Ashe court, while a block away in the Louis Armstrong one of the next generation of Americans, Robby Ginepri, joined battle with the South African veteran Wayne Ferreira.

Ginepri, 20, is 13 years younger than Agassi, and further separated by the small matter of eight grand-slam titles. But like Agassi in his youth, he appears to have a magnetic pull, with Minnie Driver attaching herself to his arm this year. As Andy Roddick launches himself in pursuit of greatness, Ginepri has positioned himself in A-Rod's wake, hoping to be gathered up and rushed into the top 20.

He is not alone. Others trying to hang on to Roddick's coat-tails include James Blake, Mardy Fish, Brian Vahaly, Taylor Dent and Alex Bogomolov. Many will try, few will succeed. But for this week at least it is Ginepri who is pushing his burly self to the fore.

With his black sleeveless shirt, black shorts and baseball cap, Ginepri looked like he had mistaken the US Open for the MTV music video awards, except that Minnie had jumped the plane back to Britain. Ferreira, 31, and playing in his 52nd consecutive slam - two short of equalling Stefan Edberg's record - has seen most things, including the many transformations of Agassi, but he may have blinked a little at this apparition.

Ginepri possesses none of Roddick's weapons of mass destruction, but has muscled up during the last year. Hence, presumably, the sleeveless shirt which accentuates his bulk. Certainly Ferreira had no answers, losing 6-2, 6-4, 6-7, 6-2 which saw Ginepri reach the last 32 of a grand slam for the first time. "Seeing Andy do so well really pushes me on," said Ginepri. "I was really fired up against Wayne."

That much was obvious, as was the "wow" that went up from the seats when Ginepri removed his shirt during the match. "I heard it," said Ginepri, "but I didn't let it rattle me." Ferreira neither.

Little appears to rattle Agassi these days, although losing still makes him a little scratchy. Sweden's Andreas Vinciguerra did his level best to get under the great man's skin in their second-round match, but the left-hander ran out of gas after one set and lost 7-6, 6-1, 6-4.

Vinciguerra, 22, the world No 92, was being mentioned in the same breath as Lleyton Hewitt and Juan Carlos Ferrero a couple of years ago, but injuries have stalled his career and he is of relatively small stature. But he is immensely quick as Agassi, playing him for the first time, rapidly discovered.

"It took a while to get a clear assessment of his strengths, and I wasn't picking his serve very well in the first set," said Agassi, who was being watched for the first time here this week by his wife, Steffi Graf.

There are few left-handers on the circuit these days, so finding one to practise with has become increasingly difficult. But few have a greater ability to think on their feet than Agassi, and by the tie-break he was discovering angles that Vinciguerra could only marvel at.

With Sampras, Jim Courier, and Michael Chang gone - and another of that generation, Jeff Tarango, retiring yesterday - Agassi and Todd Martin, both with young children, are left alone.

"You compromise everything in your life on a daily level, including all the weeks of preparation and training," said Agassi. "Sometimes your family pays the price for what you have to do to be at your best. There's a big price tag, and the longer you do it the harder it gets."

But it's not easy to quit, either. And anyway, nobody wants Agassi to be an absent friend for some time yet.