Agassi finally plays match, defeats Dent

NEW YORK - One world No. 1 got bumped for another.

It was a priority for the men to play at the U.S. Open on Tuesdayand eventually Andre Agassi did, albeit intermittently.

After surviving two rain delays, Agassi defeated unseeded AmericanTaylor Dent 6-7 (5), 6-4, 7-5, with Dent retiring because oftightness in his lower right hamstring in the fourth-round match.With the men's draw further behind, Open officials pushed back top-seeded Kim Clijsters' quarterfinal date with Amelie Mauresmo, latersuspending it for the day all together.

It's been quite a few days for Agassi.

First, the rain played against him. Then, it played in his favor.Agassi originally was going to have to play three straight days, butwhen his match was rained out Monday, it gave him an extra 24 hoursto recover after playing both Saturday and Sunday.

He finished his third-round match against Yevgeny Kafelnikov onSunday, a day after it was suspended by rain with Agassi up a set anddown one game in the second.

Agassi, the oldest top-seeded man in the Open era, called it "amistake, an oversight in judgment" that his Saturday match was notfinished later that day.

"These conditions affect everybody," he said Tuesday. "It's just aquestion of trying to get the most out of yourself. A lot of years ofexperience, but it's still difficult to do."

Only three matches have been completed in three days. Several werein progress late Tuesday when the rain started again and play wasofficially halted for the night - just before 11 p.m.

Commentator Ted Robinson compared the day to a "childhoodtoothache."

Agassi earned his 200th victory in Grand Slam play. If he wins thetournament, he'll tie Pete Sampras at 203, the third-most in the Openera behind Jimmy Connors and Ivan Lendl.

"To see him injured is outright disappointing for everybody,"Agassi said of Dent. "It doesn't matter if it's my 200th or firstmatch. That's not the way you want it to end. It started to becomeapparent he was struggling with the leg. I was surprised he wasunable to continue."

The 22-year-old Dent said he aggravated his leg several days ago.

"If I wake up and it's feeling perfect tomorrow I'll be veryangry, but I doubt that'll happen," he said.

As Agassi and Dent headed into their second delay, the tournamentsound crew had a little fun, playing "Here Comes the Rain Again" bythe Eurythmics.

Francesca Schiavone and Ai Sugiyama were sent home Monday nightjust before they were to start a first-set tiebreaker - "For me itwas very lucky, because I was playing so bad. I was feeling so bad,"Schiavone said.

They got sent home midway through again Tuesday, with No. 15Sugiyama leading the 29th-seeded Schiavone 7-6 (5), 5-4. No. 7Anastasia Myskina led Mary Pierce 7-6 (2), 2-0 in another match thatwas stopped in progress Monday and resumed for less than an hourTuesday.

When play ended, French Open champion Juan Carlos Ferrero won thefirst set 6-2 against Todd Martin, No. 5 Guillermo Coria led JonasBjorkman 6-2, 2-0, and 2001 Open champion Lleyton Hewitt trailed No.11 Paradorn Srichaphan 4-3 on serve in the first set.

Clijsters and No. 5 Mauresmo were sent home at 5 p.m. Three othersingles matches were pushed back until Wednesday: No. 3 LindsayDavenport vs. No. 24 Paola Suarez, No. 2 Roger Federer vs. No. 13David Nalbandian, and No. 7 Carlos Moya vs. No. 22 Younes El Aynaoui.Eighty-seven of the 95 matches on Tuesday's schedule - including alldoubles, junior and senior draw matches - were moved.

Unlike at Wimbledon, there are no tarps or tents for the courtswhen it rains.

"We've been talking about covers since the '80s," MartinaNavratilova said. "Yesterday they spent more time drying the courtsthan it rained. When are they going to learn? We have no say on it.Yesterday, it was two hours of play, six hours of drying. Fifteenminutes is enough after a drizzle."

Organizers were contemplating all sorts of contingency plans tofinish the event by Sunday. But with a serious backlog, there is achance the men's final could be played on a Monday for the first timesince 1987.

"It's obviously driving the players crazy. Everybody wants to seesome tennis," John McEnroe said on TV. "The sport is losing out rightnow. This is the United States Open, and we're sitting here twiddlingour thumbs."

AP-ES-09-03-03 0206EDT