Skip navigation
Listen now:
NBC Sports: Under Center with McNabb & Malone

Tennis

ATP scores | WTA scores |  Video |  ATP schedule  |  WTA schedule   | ATP rankings  |  WTA rankings  |  Tickets

Agassi advances
at Pacific Life Open

American star will face
top seed Federer in semifinals

Image: AgassiJed Jacobsohn / Getty Images
Andre Agassi returns a shot against Guillermo Coria of Argentina at the Pacific Life Open on Thursday.
updated 1:33 a.m. ET March 19, 2004

INDIAN WELLS, Calif. - Andre Agassi came up with the big points when he needed to, beating Guillermo Coria 6-4, 7-5 Thursday night to move into the Pacific Life Open semifinals.

Agassi, ranked fifth, will play No. 1 Roger Federer on Saturday.

Federer defeated Juan Ignacio Chela 6-2, 6-1 in their quarterfinal to run his 2004 record to 20-1.

The Swiss star beat Agassi 6-3, 6-0, 6-4 in their last meeting, at the Tennis Masters Cup final last November.

Agassi, who turns 34 next month, was impressive against Coria, a 22-year-old Argentine ranked No. 4.

Agassi, who beat Pete Sampras to win the Indian Wells title in 2001, broke Coria’s serve in the ninth game to take a 5-4 edge, then won the first set with a 117-mph ace and a forehand winner down the line for the final two points.

He broke Coria again in the 11th game of the second set, then served out for the victory.

Afterward, Agassi bowed while the crowd chanted “Andre! Andre!”

Federer has lost only 15 games in four matches at Indian Wells. He has been broken just once the entire tournament, in the third game of the first set against Chela.

In the women’s competition, top-ranked Justine Henin-Hardenne avenged her only loss of the year by winning another tough match against Russian teenager Svetlana Kuznetsova.

When Henin-Hardenne wrapped up a 6-4, 7-5 victory in her quarterfinal match, the Belgian star clinched both fists and pumped her arms a bit as if to say, “Yeah!”

Image: Henin-Hardenne
Kevork Djansezian / AP
Justine Henin-Hardenne of Belgium acknowledges the fans after defeating Russia's Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-4, 7-5 to advance to the semifinals of Pacific Life Open on Thursday.

It was the fourth meeting between the two this year.

The victory sends Henin-Hardenne, who has won three times this year, into the semifinals against Anastasia Myskina.

Kuznetsova, the 18-year-old daughter of cycling coach Alexandr Kuznetsova, had upset Henin-Hardenne in the semifinals at Qatar in three sets earlier this month, and she didn’t go quietly in the rematch.

“I got a little revenge. It made me a little bit nervous because I know how well she’s playing,” Henin-Hardenne said. “I was nervous a little bit — no, a lot — this morning when I woke up because she’s the only player that beat me this year.”

Myskina, 22, outlasted 31-year-old Conchita Martinez 7-6 (2), 2-6, 6-3 in their quarterfinal.

Lindsay Davenport faces Nathalie Dechy in Friday’s other semifinal. Both the women’s and men’s finals are on Sunday.

Henin-Hardenne started fast and built a 4-0 lead before Kuznetsova began winning points by driving her powerful forehand to Henin-Hardenne’s backhand.

The 14th-ranked Kuznetsova narrowed the gap to 5-4 before she lost the final two points of the set by hitting consecutive forehands long.

The St. Petersburg native then built a 5-4 lead in the second set and had double set point in the 10th game before Henin-Hardenne began to fight her way back.

That game went to deuce four times and featured several long, well-played rallies from the baseline, but Henin-Hardenne finally ended it with a deep forehand winner, then a 98-mph serve that Kuznetsova couldn’t handle.

Henin-Hardenne, 21, went on to win the next two games, keeping Kuznetsova scrambling from side to side until she finally hit the ball out or into the net.

In the first match between the two this year, Henin-Hardenne won 6-2, 7-5 in the third round on her way to the Australian Open championship, her third Grand Slam title. She beat Kuznetsova again in the final at Dubai, 7-6 (3), 6-3.

© 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

advertisement
More news
Getty Images
Rafa rolls into Roland Garros

Watching Rafa Nadal churn his way through the claycourt season over the past few weeks, it seems nothing much has changed since his French Open triumph a year ago despite a lengthy injury layoff.

Slideshow
Image: TENNIS-AUS-OPEN
  Scenes from Down Under
Check out the best images from the 2013 Australian Open.

NBCSports.com

Slideshow
Image: The Championships - Wimbledon 2012: Day Thirteen
  The best of Wimbledon
The best images from the Grand Slam tournament at the All-England Club.

NBC Sports

Video
  French Open 2012: Top 10 Shots
June 10, 2012: John McEnroe, Ted Robinson, and Mary Carillo look back at the Top Ten best moments from the 2012 French Open.
‘