Rafter ends brief revival by Agassi

He may have been dressed in pink, but he was never in it. Andre Agassi had simply not played enough matches this year for anyone to expect he could go all the way at the US Open. Yet so unpredictable is the man, and so talented, that it was impossible not to harbour a sneaky little feeling that he just might defy all the odds stacked against him.

But yesterday Agassi lost his fourth-round match against Australia's Pat Rafter 6-3, 7-6, 4-6, 63. And so America is left with Michael Chang to cheer. Hip, hip - aw, shucks, who cares? No Sampras. No Agassi. No television audience.

Not everything is gloom on this side of the pond, though. Venus Williams, making her debut at Flushing Meadow, was on court just before Agassi and reached her first Grand Slam semi-final at only the third attempt with a 7-5, 7-5 victory over France's Sandrine Testud.

Pam Shriver, now a television pundit, achieved the same feat in 1978. The only other woman in the Open era to reach the US Open semi-final on her first attempt was Chris Evert in 1971. Williams next meets Romania's Irina Spirlea who knocked out Monica Seles, the number two seed, in her quarter-final.

It remains difficult to be sure what to make of Williams, largely because she has played so few senior tournaments, and virtually no junior tennis whatsoever.

Her biggest win this year, prior to this event, came in Indian Wells in March when she defeated Iva Majoli of Croatia, the French Open champion, but otherwise her victories have been few and far between.

She played Martina Hingis, the world's number one, during the Lipton championships and lost 64, 6-2, and then again in San Diego last month when the Swiss teenager, a few months younger than Williams, but years wiser, won even more easily 6-2, 6-1.

Not that this has dimmed the self-belief of Williams one jot. She remains convinced she will be the world's number one in due course, where she will be joined by her younger sister, Serena.

Steffi Graf, currently recovering from a serious knee injury, is not so sure, believing that both Anna Kournikova of Russia and the Croatian Mirjana Lucic are more gifted.

There is no doubt that many of the players do not find Williams particularly easy to get on with off court, some complaining that she even refuses to acknowledge the most simple social greeting. Her mother, Oracene, denies this. "Venus is nice to everyone," she says.

In her two previous Grand Slams, Williams lost in the second round at Roland Garros, and in her opening match at Wimbledon. Understandably, she appeared a little lost on her first venture into Europe, and it was always likely she would make her first mark in New York.

When she lost the first set of her first-round match against doubles specialist Larisa Neiland of Latvia, it seemed her appearance here might also be brief, but sheer power saw her through, and a third-round victory over Germany's Anke Huber, the number eight seed, made everybody sit up.

Spirlea, who earlier defeated Kournikova, played some wonderful tennis against Seles and is more than capable of trading powerful blows with Williams. However, there were signs against Testud that the American is beginning to learn how to mix things - to take the pace of the ball and not try to belt the cover off it with every shot.

"When I began on the senior Tour, I was not quite able to understand that I didn't have to go for winners, or expect to hit a winner, with every shot," Williams said after beating the French woman. "It takes a lot of players years to learn this. I have been able to understand it quicker than most, so I'm pretty happy about that."

Agassi, in stark contrast, was far from happy with his defeat by Rafter, but vowed he will be back to his best for next year. "It's clear my game is together," he said.

Clear to Agassi, perhaps, but it is difficult to see him regularly putting in the amount of work and dedication which took him to the number one spot in 1995. It was good to see him reasonably fit again, but promises of a new dawn have to be viewed in the context of Agassi's past when the relationship between words and deeds has often been approximate.

Third seed Jana Novotna joined the exodus of seeds yesterday, falling to sixth-seeded American Lindsay Davenport in a three-set quarter-final.

The reigning Olympic champion defeated her doubles partner 6-2, 4-6, 7-6 (7/5), to reach her first Grand Slam semi-final.

Davenport has reached four prior Grand Slam quarter-finals, the most recent last year at the French Open.

"The wind out there was bad. You never knew if the lead was safe or not," Davenport said. Davenport sent two forehands into the net to give Novotna a 5-4 edge. But then Novotna sent one forehand into the net and another wide to give Davenport her second match point.

This time, she took advantage, slapping a cross-court forehand winner for the victory.