/ 24 January 2003

Wayne’s world crashes

Andre Agassi beat South Africa’s Wayne Ferreira on Thursday for the 11th straight time to reach his fourth Australian Open final.

The 6-2 6-2 6-3 scoreline leaves Ferreira with just a single set in all those meetings between the veterans.

With both men playing in their 50th grand slam event there was always only going to be one winner and it took Agassi just 87 minutes to reach the final of a championship he has already won three times.

Agassi was two sets up in less than an hour as the unseeded Ferreira was swamped on Rod Laver Arena from the very start. He simply went through the motions in the third set while Agassi wrapped things up. Agassi will face either fellow American Andy Roddick or Germany’s Rainer Schuettler — who play on Friday — in Sunday’s final.

‘He has a certain game that brings out the worst in me,” Ferreira said.

Asked how he made it look so easy, Agassi replied: ‘I work hard to make it look that way, I promise you that.

‘I was hitting the ball cleanly and taking control of the points. I cannot have any complaints.

‘I am just going to take a couple of days off now, enjoy myself, enjoy being with my son and then come out here and let it all hang out,” he said, somewhat alarmingly. —