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Agassi Is upended by No. 7 seed Melzer Second-seeded Andre Agassi was overcome by an impressive mix of power and finesse from Jurgen Melzer on Friday night in the quarterfinals of the SAP Open.
Seventh-seeded Melzer's drop shots left Agassi flat-footed, and the Austrian's two-handed backhand matched his opponent power for power throughout the match in a 6-3, 6-1 victory.
"He played much better than me. That's what he did both times," a deflated Agassi said after the drubbing. Agassi lost to Melzer last year in Toronto.
Melzer next faces Cyril Saulnier in one of Saturday's semifinal matches. Saulnier beat No. 4 Vincent Spadea 6-2, 6-4 Friday.
Melzer stuck with his game plan of dictating points with deep, hard groundstrokes and not letting Agassi — master of the same tactic — do it first.
Keeping Agassi moving from corner to corner prevented him from "standing in the middle of the court making you run like a dog," Melzer said.
"I had a good game plan and I executed it perfectly," Melzer said. He now owns a 2-1 head-to-head edge over Agassi, ranked 10th in the world.
Agassi had his chance early in the second set to pull even with the hard-hitting Austrian. But Melzer fought off four break points to hold serve and go up 3-1. He cruised from there, breaking Agassi at love in the next game and closing out the final set 6-1.
Agassi said there are more players on tour now willing to go toe-to-toe with him, taking their chances, hitting the ball early and ripping groundstroke winners with a style he knows all too well.
"A lot more guys are capable of it now," Agassi said.
Third-seeded Tommy Haas recovered from a first-set loss to remain unbeaten in seven career meetings against No. 8 Max Mirnyi, winning 6-7 (2), 7-6 (3), 6-2. Haas will take on either Andy Roddick or Thomas Enqvist, who played later Friday night.
The top-seeded and third-ranked Roddick has split four matches with Enqvist. Roddick beat him, 6-4, 7-5, 6-2, last April at Delray Beach in the quarterfinals of the Davis Cup in their previous meeting.
"It's always tough to play Andy but it's fun to play those kind of matches," Enqvist said. "You have to be on top of your game."
Roddick's semifinal loss to Lleyton Hewitt in the Australian Open last month left him in a foul mood.
"A lot of people are under the assumption it's easy to play well every week, and it's not," Roddick said. "It's also not easy to get through when you're not playing your best."
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