How many times has Andre Agassi just shredded the confidence of a hot young player?
It had happened twice already this year. In San Jose, Calif., Andy Roddick won four games against Agassi in the semifinals. In Rome, Tommy Haas took six games off Agassi in the Italian Open final over three sets.
No. 3 came Saturday at the French Open.
Spaniard Tommy Robredo, who turned 20 on May 1, is 12 years younger than Agassi and arrived in Paris with respectable clay-court credentials, having reached the semifinals in the Masters Series event at Hamburg, Germany, beating Sebastien Grosjean and Haas. He finally lost to Marat Safin, retiring in the second set because of an ankle injury.
All this meant very little to the fourth-seeded Agassi, who dispatched Robredo with stunning ease 6-2, 6-4, 6-2 in 94 minutes in the third round.
“When someone gets the worst end of something like that, you never know what Plan B these players have,” Agassi said of Robredo. “He has a lot of firepower. I know if he was really tired of running, he could just start playing bigger. The last thing you want to do is lay off any of your shots and give him a look and let him get some confidence going.”
Next for Agassi is his second French opponent of the tournament, wild card Paul-Henri Mathieu. Agassi is the only remaining American male after three rounds.
It’s vastly different on the women’s side, with four Americans in the final 16: No. 1-seeded and defending champion Jennifer Capriati, No. 2 Venus Williams, No. 3 Serena Williams and Chanda Rubin.
Serena Williams will play 17-year-old Russian qualifier Vera Zvonareva in the fourth round Sunday. Capriati beat Australian Evie Dominikovic 6-3, 6-1 Saturday.
