Agassi, Haas march into Rome quarter-finals
Eleanor Preston
Andre Agassi fought off Argentinian Agustin Calleri's determined challenge to reach the quarter-finals of the Rome Masters with a 7-6 7-5 win on Thursday.
Seventh seed Tommy Haas of Germany, however, had little trouble dismissing France's Sebastien Grosjean 6-3 6-4 in the third round.
In contrast with his quick fire demolition of Michel Kratochvil in the previous round, which took just 43 minutes, American Agassi battled for more than two hours for victory.
"It was good for me to get my concentration working today," said Agassi, who had to save a set point against him at 4-5 down in the second set.
"You have to concentrate against him because he is playing so well and he hits the ball so big. I think I got a bit lucky at the end."
Agassi will take on Albert Costa in the last eight after Costa won an all-Spanish battle 7-6 6-3 with Albert Montanes.
"I've known Al for many years and he's always tough to play, especially on clay," said Agassi. "Hopefully tomorrow I can have another good day."
The powerful Haas made the most of warm, dry conditions to impose himself on Grosjean from the early stages.
"It played pretty fast today, almost like a hard court with clay on, and that definitely helped me," said Haas.
Grosjean's marathon match on Wednesday against David Nalbandian seemed to have taken its toll on the tenth seed, as he put up little resistance to Haas's blistering serves.
"I think he had a really tough match yesterday, when he saved three match points, and maybe that affected him a little," said Haas.
HIGHEST SEED
Haas is now the highest seed left in the Rome draw and plays Carlos Moya, who joined his Spanish compatriot Costa after ruthlessly disposing of Sweden's Thomas Enqvist 6-2 6-1, for a place in the last four.
Rising American star James Blake once more found winning ways, knocking out Chilean qualifier Fernando Gonzalez 4-6 6-3 6-3 on his way to his first ever Masters Series quarter-final.
"It was another slow start out there today but every match I feel I'm getting stronger and stronger," said the world number 40.
"Fernando's played a lot of tennis this week so he might have got a little tired but I felt great and I feel ready for tomorrow."
Blake takes on experienced Czech Jiri Novak in the last eight. Novak, seeded 14th, also continued his quiet progress through the draw by disposing of Croatia's Ivan Ljubicic 6-4 6-1.
Another of America's new generation, Andy Roddick, also progressed to the last eight with a 3-6 6-4 6-2 victory over Wayne Ferreira.
Roddick, who has already won a clay court title this year in Houston, recovered from a shaky start to see off the veteran South African.
"It took me a little while to work out his game plan," said Roddick. "I just fought and stayed in it then I started playing better towards the end."
There was yet more Spanish success as Tommy Robredo entered the quarter-finals by beating Belgium's Xavier Malisse 6-2 6-4.
