The hard part starts now, says Agassi

Twice former champion Andre Agassi advanced to the fourth round of the U.S. Open on Saturday, then said the hard part would now begin.

"I'm going to have to play my best tennis, start shifting gears now," the second-seeded American said after his 7-5 7-6 6-3 victory over Ramon Delgado of Paraguay, a 24-year-old qualifier ranked 119th.

Agassi won all the important points, including all five break points he had. But heading into the second week of the Open he said he would start facing some of the new generation of players changing the sport -- among them his next opponent, Roger Federer, 20, of Switzerland.

"It's certainly going to be the toughest test to date in this tournament for me," the 31-year-old Australian Open champion said.

"It seems like everybody you're playing knows how to win now and has the game to really bring some quality tennis."

Agassi said Federer, the 13th seed, had a good all-round game.

"He's one of the most talented players out there," Agassi said. "The guy does everything real well. There's a lot of snap to his game off both wings, he moves well, he has great hands, he has a big serve."

But he received no special motivation from Federer's eight-match winning streak against Americans, including a victory over Pete Sampras at Wimbledon and Swiss team triumphs over the United States in the Davis Cup and Hopman Cup.

"He's not undefeated," Agassi protested, jokingly. "I got him a few years ago. I think he was 12 years old."

Agassi won their only previous meeting, at Basel in 1998 when Federer was 17.

NEW GENERATION

Federer is part of the young generation that also includes third seed and defending champion Marat Safin, fourth seed Lleyton Hewitt, fifth seed Juan Carlos Ferrero and 18th seed Andy Roddick.

"All these guys look as though they're pushing the standards of the game and you've got to step up," said Agassi.

"The men's game, I think, is definitely getting deeper. The tournaments are getting harder, guys are getting better."

In particular, the specialists are getting better at their specialities, he said.

"I've never seen guys as quick as you see them now, when speed is their asset. I've never seen guys serve bigger than they serve now, when the power of their serve is the weapon.

"So it is a constant pressure that you feel going into an event that has gotten tougher over the years, in my opinion."

Agassi was asked his feelings about the promotional push being given to the young guns.

"It's hard for me to be objective about that, to be quite honest," he said. "I don't know how that tends to read to the average sorts of fan, tennis fan."

But he was glad the new stars appeared to have earned their attention because of tennis ability. "That's nice to see, that they are good."

Agassi was asked how he would feel about playing a series of exhibition matches with Sampras.

"This stage of my career, I could see myself doing something like that for a couple reasons and a couple reasons only.

"If you could raise money for good causes, I would be interested in doing that, and if I felt it was actually helping the game of tennis, I would do that, too.

"There's a lot of great tennis out there," he said.

"Highlighting me and Pete as if we're the only interesting thing in tennis would be difficult for me to support."