Agassi slays The Beast as Capriati crumbles

Ossian Shine Reuters New York

He was mauled and savaged by a man called 'The Beast' but still Andre Agassi stood his own in a cacophonous New York arena.

With an arsenal consisting of razor-sharp reflexes and a quicksilver brain, the American slew mighty Belarussian Max Mirnyi 6-7 6-3 7-5 6-3 on Wednesday night to reach his eighth US Open semifinal.

It was journey into the last four that required all the 32- year-old's wit, guile and brute force against Mirnyi, called as The Beast for his 1.91-meter (6-foot-5) frame and fierce serve, who eventually ran out of rockets.

"He's a big guy who can use his size and force you to do something special on every point," the sixth seed said after a two hour 51-minute battle.

While Agassi was raising it to thrill a home crowd with a lion-hearted display, New York-born Jennifer Capriati's nerves got the better of her and the third seed choked her way to defeat against Amelie Mauresmo.

Big stage nerves and a potent French curse felled the Australian Open champion as she let victory slip from between her fingers to hand Mauresmo her first US Open semifinal spot 4-6 7-6 6-3.

The result gave Mauresmo a fourth win in seven matches against Capriati. Mauresmo has now won their last three meetings, including the Wimbledon quarterfinals in July and the Montreal final last month.

The 23-year-old Frenchwoman will next face defending champion Venus Williams in the semifinals after she crushed sixth seed Monica Seles 6-2 6-3.

The other semifinals sees Wimbledon and French Open champion Serena Williams -- Venus's sister -- face Lindsay Davenport, the last non-Williams to win at Flushing Meadows when she lifted the title in 1998.

In the men's draw, top seed and defending champion Lleyton Hewitt put an end to Younes El Aynaoui's plans of an upset, beating the Moroccan 6-1 7-6 4-6 6-2 to reach the last four.

"I feel pretty good at the moment," Hewitt, who will next meet Agassi, said.

Agassi stands a full 16 centimeters shorter than his Belarussian opponent, but he looks up to none on a tennis court.

The pair traded fearsome blows -- Mirnyi's serve and Agassi's return -- for the first two bone-rattling sets which they split.

Toe-to-toe, the pair slugged it out until a moment of sportsmanship in the third set marked a watershed in the contest.

At 4-4 and deuce, as Mirnyi stretched up to power a first serve, a voice in the crowd screamed out.

Mirnyi missed, returned to the baseline to deliver a more tame version of the serve when Agassi stopped him and told him to take the first one again.

Mirnyi, smiled, thumbed his nose to the voice in the crowd and promptly held service for a 5-4 lead.

Three games later, though, Agassi had snatched it with some fierce groundstrokes and was leading two sets to one.

Still Mirnyi charged at his tormentor, but Agassi threw everything straight back at him.