Agassi sets up clash with Novak at Rome
Eleanor Preston
Andre Agassi breezed into the semifinals of the Rome Masters with a 6-2 6-2 drubbing of Spain's Albert Costa on Friday.
Agassi will face Jiri Novak in the semifinals while Andy Roddick survived a stern test to beat Spain's Tommy Robredo 6-4 7-6.
Agassi, who reached the final in Rome 13 years ago but has never won the $2.3 million event, raced to a 5-1 lead over the Spaniard in the first set with a mixture of aggression and guile before an early break at the start of the second set put the American firmly in control.
"It's always tough but today I was just hitting the ball really well," said Agassi. "It's been a great week for me.
"Novak is a very talented player and he plays the game really easily. It's going to be difficult. I hope I play this well tomorrow."
Novak had to save three match points in his marathon 3-6 7-6 6-4 win over American James Blake.
"I'd like to congratulate James because he was playing great," said 14th seed Novak. "It was only luck that I win this match because he was playing so well.
"He was definitely the better player for the first two sets but I just fought."
MATCH POINTS
Blake's match points came and went in a second set tiebreaker with two on his own serve, but the 22-year-old lacked the big match experience to convert them.
The 27-year-old Novak, who reached the semifinals of the Australian Open in January, will play only his second Masters Series semifinal and first in Rome and said he was looking forward to playing Agassi.
"I think I have nothing to lose so I will play without pressure and try to do my best."
Big serving Roddick struggled to find his rhythm and was forced to come from a break down in both sets.
"This tournament I haven't been starting out too well," admitted the 13th-seeded American.
"That's something I'm going to have to change if I want to keep going here.
"It was tough mentally out there today so I'm just glad to get out with a win."
Roddick is on a nine-match winning streak having won his last clay court event in Houston, where he beat Pete Sampras in the final.
The nineteen-year-old now faces a potentially tricky semifinal against seventh seed Tommy Haas, who scored a surprise 6-3 6-4 win over former French Open champion Carlos Moya.
Moya failed to cope with the German's big hitting, losing his serve to go 4-3 down in the first set, and again at the start of the second set.
"It was a difficult match today," said Haas, who knocked Roddick out of last month's Monte Carlo Masters.
"I knew that Carlos had been playing some good tennis here, I knew I had to play my best tennis to beat him.
"In the game today it's so important to win the big points and I think I won a few more of those than him.
