Agassi takes little time to dance into quarter-finals

Andre Agassi entered the Arthur Ashe court like a man in a hurry to make the most of the Labour Day holiday, and duly swept past Switzerland's Roger Federer, the conqueror of Pete Sampras at Wimbledon this year, in an hour and 23 minutes.

"It was a pretty tight package today," said Agassi, who won 6-1 6-2 6-4 to become the first player on the men's side to reach the quarter-finals.

Federer, who is often something of a slow starter, was two sets down before he had time to digest his breakfast. It was more than a little embarrassing for the 20-year-old Federer, the number 13 seed. He briefly threatened the Agassi serve during the second set, and again in the third when a close line call deprived him of a 3-1 lead. But whereas Agassi's footwork was all Fred Astaire, Federer had lead in his shoes.

Meanwhile, Sampras rolled back the years yesterday to answer the critics who believed his grand slam days were over. The former world number one and winner of 13 grand slams defeated Pat Rafter 6-3 6-2 6-7 6-4 in an exhibition of ruthless hard-court tennis.

The triumph earned 30-year-old Sampras an all-American quarter-final with 31-year-old Agassi.

It is nine years since Sampras failed to grace a season with a grand slam triumph, and the manner of his slaying of Rafter suggests he could make that a round decade.

For Rafter, this year's beaten Winbledon finalist and a two-time champion here, it might have been his last grand slam match. The Aussie plans to take six months off at the end of this year to flee the pressure of constant travelling.

Sampras admitted he would need to play even better to overcome Agassi in the battle of the thirty-somethings. "Andre's the best player I've ever played over the years," said Sampras. "I'm going to have to play really big. He's playing unbelievable tennis at the moment.

The match-up between Brazil's Gustavo Kuerten, the world number one - although you might as well throw the computer rankings into the East River as far as New Yorkers are concerned - and Max Mirnyi of Belarus always promised fireworks, and the midnight oil was still being burned when Kuerten, three times the French Open champion, finally made it to the last 16 with a 6-7 5-7 7-6 7-6 6-2 victory.

Mirnyi, a 24-year-old, 6ft 5ins, 200lb mountain of a man, has yet to win an ATP title, despite being in the world's top 50, but he is exactly the sort of opponent that none of the top players wants to meet in the early rounds.

Kuerten is a player of rhythms, possessing the sweetest and most lethal backhand on the men's circuit; Mirnyi serves huge, and crowds the net with brooding menace. It was a classic encounter, and for two sets it seemed that the man from Minsk would prevail.

The match lasted three hours 31minutes and was of remarkable quality. Kuerten hit 104 winners and only 13 unforced errors, while Mirnyi pounded 72 winners himself, and committed only 25 unforced errors. Both served superbly, and constantly had the crowd on its feet.

There were also late finishes for Russia's Yevgeny Kafelnikov and Arnaud Clement of France, who will now play each other for a place in the quarter-finals. Clement, who lost the Australian Open final to Agassi this year, has been struggling to raise his game to another level, and suddenly everything clicked into place against Spain's Carlos Moya. Moya took the first set of their third-round match before Clement, one of the best movers around, turned the match around completely, so much so that he won the final set 6-0.