Top seed Andre Agassi continued his triumphant return from a two-month injury layoff in Los Angeles on Thursday, defeating fellow American Kevin Kim to book a quarterfinal date with Thailand’s Paradorn Srichaphan.
”This match was much more of a test because he was quicker to hurt me if I left any balls short,” Agassi said after the 75-minute victory.
”He definitely made it more uncomfortable than the first match. But I answered the call today and that was good.”
Agassi’s 6-2, 7-5 second-round victory at a $380 000 ATP hard-court tournament followed his 6-1, 6-0 victory on Tuesday over French lucky loser Jean-Rene Lisnard after he had missed Wimbledon due to back pain.
Agassi (35) seeks his fourth title at this event.
Paradorn defeated American wild card Paul Goldstein 6-1, 6-4, and took back-to-back victories for only the second time in his past 14 events. The Thai veteran improved to 17-20 on the season.
”I’m looking forward to the quarterfinal,” Paradorn said. ”I have to play like I have nothing to lose, like I did last summer.”
Agassi took the quick opener by dictating play with his signature ground game before Kim put up a stiffer challenge in the next set.
”I got off to a good start and managed to hold out the lead in the first set,” Agassi said. ”But I knew it was a lot closer than the score at that point.”
Agassi recorded the lone break in the second set in the final game, sealing the victory with a forehand winner.
”I had a few chances but he just kept coming up with some great shots and the standard picked up,” Agassi said.
”It was good all the way until the end. I felt good for the most part the whole way through. He was making me earn it for sure.”
Agassi, who joins number two Dominik Hrbaty of Slovakia as the only seeds remaining from the snake-bitten hard-court event, was asked if this was his tournament to win for the fourth time.
”No, I’m in the quarters, there are eight guys who can win it,” he said. ”I play Paradorn next. I have issues there. This guy hits the ball pretty big.” — Sapa-AFP