MELBOURNE, Australia -- Andre Agassi loves to make opponents
work. Patrick Rafter makes hard work pay off in his acrobatic
attacking.
|  | | Patrick Rafter celebrates his first-ever berth in the Australian Open semifinals. |
The two are headed for a semifinal meeting at the Australian
Open after Agassi beat Todd Martin 7-5, 6-3, 6-4 and Rafter
rebounded from 1-4 in the third set to beat Dominik Hrbaty 6-2, 6-7
(4), 7-5, 6-0 Tuesday.
Agassi is the defending champion and this time doesn't have Pete
Sampras to worry about. Martin knocked Sampras out in fourth round,
after losing to him 13 times in a row. Last year, Agassi's
come-from-behind, five-set victory over Sampras was the supreme
showdown of the Australian Open.
Agassi also has a 7-4 record against Rafter. But Rafter won
their last meeting in the Wimbledon semifinals last year, has won
two U.S. Opens and is a heavy local favorite, the first Australian
since Mark Woodforde in 1996 to reach the semifinals of the home
country's Grand Slam tournament.
"This is what it feels like, huh?" said Rafter, who never had
done better at the Australian than the fourth round in 1995. "It's
been a long time. It feels very satisfying being at home doing
it."
The crowd helps, he said.
"You don't get this quite anywhere else, for me at least," he
added.
In winning 12 of the last 13 games, he also was helped by
Hrbaty's collapse. The No. 14 seed double-faulted twice as he was
broken in the third set's seventh game and again when he was broken
in the 11th. He put in only 24 percent of his first serves in the
final set.
Rafter was caught off guard in the second set when Hrbaty,
conqueror of U.S. Open champion and second-seed Marat Safin,
suddenly switched to a serve-and-volley attack.
"I got a little bit frustrated. He got his momentum going. I
knew if I could hang in there and break him my serve would hold
up," Rafter said.
Rafter showed his athletic style on a number of points, lunging
to defend and then recovering to attack.
Agassi's best demonstration came on match point.
Martin hit a good angle volley. Agassi chased it down, blasted a
shot that Martin could only block back, then lobbed over him.
Agassi interrupted his match briefly to catch a bug near the
baseline and throw it off court. Martin, trailing 30-40 and 1-2 in
the final set, waited out the distraction and served an ace.
He then held serve and, three games later, broke Agassi for a
4-3 lead. But Agassi broke right back and went on to win.
"I put on a good front," Agassi said of his mercy toward the
bug.
His tennis, meanwhile, "feels pretty good. I've gotten better
as the tournament has gone on," the No. 6 seed said.
Agassi's Australian Open triumph last year ended a run of four
Grand Slam tournaments where he also won the French and U.S. Opens
and was runner-up at Wimbledon.
Winning all four in a year "would be great," he said.
"There's no saying it can't be done, but I think we're a lot
closer to seeing Mark McGwire's home run record being beat than we
are to seeing someone win four Grand Slams in the same year in the
men's game."
Martin said the Sampras that he beat was out of practice, but
"Andre is very much in form. ... Andre thrives on confidence, and
he's got plenty of it."
"I was beaten today," Martin said. "I certainly didn't lose.
I didn't play nearly as well as I had hoped. Most of that is due to
the way Andre played."
Agassi improved his record against Martin to 13-5. Nobody ever
has beaten both Sampras and Agassi at a Grand Slam tournament.
Looking ahead to Rafter's serve-and-volley style, Agassi said,
"You know he's going to do it, and he still is athlete enough to
pull it off, which is incredible."
Rafter said that to beat Agassi, "I'm going to have to serve
better -- it's that simple -- and probably be a little more inventive
from the baseline."
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AUDIO/VIDEO
 Patrick Rafter blows the match-winner by Dominik Hrbaty.
avi: 571 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
Andre Agassi hits a beautiful lob shot against Todd Martin for match point.
avi: 2040 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
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