Federer Pounds Agassi, Safin Next at Australian Open

Federer broke Agassi's serve midway through the first set, and broke right off the bat in both the second and third, throwing down 22 aces and giving the American no chance to establish his ground game.

"A good start always helps, especially against Andre and I think I really served well, he never broke me," said Federer, who complimented Agassi's usually-destructive ground arsenal. "From the baseline it was clear who was the better man, so I had to serve better."

Agassi would not be cornered as to whether this was his last Australian Open, and said the Swiss was simply the better player on the day.

"He does everything well and a lot of things great. He just outplayed me," Agassi said. "I wasn't picking his serve up well. You give a guy like that a lead and he can stretch it pretty quick."

Federer's win sets up a semifinal duel with No. 4 seed Marat Safin in a rematch of last year's final. The Russian rolled Dominik "The Dominator" Hrbaty 6-2, 6-4, 6-2, and benefited from the roof of Rod Laver Arena being closed due to the 90 degree temperatures.

"Actually, I saw that (Hrbaty) really wanted to play with the heat. I think it's an advantage for him," Safin said. "Really honestly, I prefer to play against him indoors. It's much, much better."

Hrbaty agreed that moving the match indoors helped the Russian's monster serve and ground game.

"I think his game stepped up one or two levels when he found out that we play indoors," Hrbaty said. "He was serving much better. I think you can't serve like this if you play outdoors, just so solid and so hard. And also there is a heat factor which you can get a little tired. But he was playing too well anyway. I don't think I would have beaten him."

In the doubles the No. 2-seeded Bryan brothers defeated fellow Americans James Blake/Mardy "Silver" Fish 6-4, 6-4.

On court Wednesday in Melbourne are (3) Bhupathi/Woodbridge vs. Zimbabwe's (5) Black/Ullyett, (26) Davydenko vs. (2) Roddick (American leads 3-0 in their meetings, never dropping a set), (9) Nalbandian vs. (3) Hewitt (Aussie leads 2-0, with their last meeting in the 2002 Wimbledon final), and French two-time defending champs (6) Llodra/Fabrice "The Original Magician" Santoro vs. (4) Bjorkman/Max "The Beast" Mirnyi.