NEW YORK: Andre Agassi's retirement will have to wait a little longer after the eight-time Grand Slam winner battled to a 6-7(4), 7-6(8), 7-6(6), 6-2 victory over Romania's Andrei Pavel in the first round of the U.S. Open here on Monday.

India's Sania Mirza breezed into the second round, getting the better of the higher-ranked Karolina Sprem of Croatia. The 19-year-old Hyderabad girl served with consistency and hit attacking groundstrokes to outplay her opponent, ranked 51 in the world, 6-4, 6-2.

They traded early breaks of serve at the start of the match, but got the crucial advantage in the 10th game and pocketed the first set.

Sania quickly took a 4-1 lead in the second and never lost control thereafter, sealing the issue in 75 minutes.

After the match, Sania said sticking to her gameplan helped her against a potentially tough rival. ``I stuck to my gameplan. She was a tough player to get in the first round. She has been in the top 15 in the world.

``My serving was the key. Hardcourt is my favourite surface. It's faster than at the Australian and the French, and New York is my favourite place.''

Adoring crowd

At times looking like a maestro and others like the 36-year-old that he is, Agassi needed three hours and 31 minutes to clinch victory in front of an adoring capacity crowd of nearly 24,000 at the Arthur Ashe Stadium.

Regardless of how Agassi fares in the rest of the tournament, his match against Pavel will surely be among the highlights of the 2006 Open. ``I want to be here really bad for the whole two weeks,'' Agassi said. ``Six more (wins).''

After capturing the second set tie-breaker 10-8 to level the match, Agassi seized the momentum.

But the 32-year-old Pavel, who has an 11-17 record in 2006 and has not played a hardcourt match since March, silenced the crowd by breaking Agassi's serve in the opening game of the third set and raced to a 4-0 lead. The American, however, reeled off the next five games before forcing a tie-breaker which he won 8-6.

Agassi easily rolled over a battle-weary Pavel in the fourth set to win his sixth career match over the Romanian in seven meetings.

While the unseeded Agassi struggled, a parade of seeded players won easily, including No. 9 Andy Roddick who overwhelmed France's Florent Serra 6-2, 6-1, 6-3.

On the women's side, the fourth-seeded Elena Dementieva and 10th-seeded Lindsay Davenport advanced to the second round.

There were few upsets — third seed Ivan Ljubicic who was beaten 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 by Spain's Feliciano Lopez.

Roddick, the 2003 Open champion, served notice that he was ready to have a shot at another title by whipping Serra under the watchful eye of new coach Jimmy Connors.

``I'm really, really confident right now,'' said Roddick, the 2003 Open champion who lost in the first round last year.

The 23-year-old Roddick kept Serra off balance by firing 10 aces and getting 70 per cent of his first serves in. — Agencies

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail