Federer, Agassi Ease Into Semifinals at ATP Miami

Some players don't match up well with others.

For Taylor Dent, that player is countryman and six-time Miami winner Andre Agassi, who Thursday night in Miami punished the serve-and-volleying American 7-5, 6-0 for his fifth win in five career meetings.

Dent failed to take advantage of numerous opportunities in the first set, and while his diet has been a topic of discussion this week in Miami, the burly American wasn't adverse to downing a bagel in the second.

"I broke him two times in the first set, and at this high level, if you're not winning the set breaking two times, it's bad news," Dent said. "I got broken three times in the first set, and that has to do with my serving. I think that was the biggest part. I didn't get enough first serves in. When I did, they were okay. They weren't fantastic. But the big problem was my second serve. Just I was hitting a lot of double-faults."

At the beginning of the second set Dent said he felt a "little pop" in his ankle and was worked on by the trainer, but retiring from the match was not a question.

"Right ankle. Then after that, it was extremely tender," Dent said. "I felt like I couldn't get off of my toe. If I did, it was killing me. So it was actually pretty sore after that. But, you know, whether it's stupidity or not, one of the things I said before the match, 'I am not retiring this match,' because I've done it two out of four times before this one."

Agassi attributed his difficulty in closing out the first set to Dent's surging serve-and-volley game.

"I think the bigger game -- he played a real good game at 5-4 in the first set to break me back. I was playing well just to hang in that game actually," Agassi said. "But the 2-1 game was a big game. I was in control of it. Eventually was a few errors that cost me the game, and that's -- that was a bit below what I was hoping for out there as far as my standard. But I got it together well after that and felt good the rest of the match."

In the semifinals Agassi will now face world No. 1 Roger Federer, who applied a 6-4, 6-2, 72-minute beating to No. 6 seed Tim Henman.

"It was a five-out-of-10 performance today, but if I improve, I can give myself an opportunity to test myself against him again," said the ever-optimistic Henman, who has now lost three in a row to the man he used to dominate in the Swiss' pre-No. 1 days. "I would like to have had him under a little more adversity -- one break point is not a lot."

Federer has now won 45 of his last 46 matches, with his only loss this year to Marat Safin at the Australian Open.

"I am surprised I have had such a great start to the season," Federer said. "You have to feel well almost every day to come through because almost everyone wants to beat you out there. So it's a surprise even though I know I can do it.

Doubles winners on the day were (1) Knowles/Nestor (d. Lopez/Nadal in two tiebreaks) and Zimbabwe's (2) Black/Ullyett (d. Davydenko/Hrbaty).

On Friday's schedule is the men's semifinals in Ferrer vs. (29) Rafael "The Prodigy" Nadal in an all-Spanish (Ferrer won their only meeting last year on clay), and (1) Federer vs. (9) Agassi (Club Fed has won the last six meetings), and in doubles (1) Knowles/Nestor vs. (3) Bjorkman/Mirnyi.

"It's going to be good," Dent says of Agassi's chances against Federer. "I mean, Agassi learns every time he plays guys. So he's going to go out there, he's going to try and impose his game on Roger, maybe try some new things we haven't seen him do before. If anybody can beat Roger, Andre can."

Agassi says the key against Federer will be taking his chances at the right times.

"You know, the two things that he obviously does better than arguably anybody in the world is his movement and his forehand," Agassi said. "They're both big factors. So you have to know when to take your chance and not hesitate, and that's the way it is with all the guys. Except with him, it's what you consider your chance, you know. Certain guys you get a lot of looks. With him, you don't get many. So you have to recognize whatever does seem like a chance and be willing to execute it. I mean, you got to play a good match, unless he's not playing his best tennis."