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Agassi, Ginepri, Blake Fly American Flag at US Open

No. 7 seed Andre Agassi, resplendent in what could be this his last US Open, weathered 28 aces Thursday from towering Ivo Karlovic, edging the Croat 7-6(4), 7-6(5), 7-6(4) to move into the third round.

"Today required a lot of concentration because it only took a mental lapse for one or two shots and the set's over with," Agassi said. "On a calm day if I'm taking risks against a guy like that, all he needs is one game and then he's going to win the set. I couldn't afford to get too risky. Points happen too quickly out there."

Other seeded players advancing into the third round were (8) Guillermo Coria (d. Spadea), (13) Richard Gasquest (d. Galimberti who retired in the fourth with injury), (18) Ivan Ljubicic (d. Saulnier in four), (19) Tommy Robredo (d. Kuerten in four), (24) Mikhail Youzhny (d. Bjorkman), (29) Tommy Haas (d. German countryman Schuettler, bagel in the third), and (32) Tomas Berdych (d. Mello, bagel in the third).

Agassi will now face a tough task against Berdych, who beat Roger Federer at last year's Olympics.

Three seeds were outed Thursday in French Open runner-up (10) Mariano Puerta (l. to Wawrinka 6-1 in the fifth), former Aussie Open winner (14) Thomas Johansson (l. to Grosjean in four), and (26) Feliciano Lopez (l. to Soderling).

Other un-seeds into the third round were Belgian Xavier Malisse (d. Baker in four), and Americans Robby Ginepri (d. Muller), and James Blake (d. Andreev).

"I think it was too much for me," said Muller after winning only six games off Ginepri, failing to rebound after his upset of Andy Roddick. "It wasn't the tennis. I think it was something in the head. I mean, yesterday I didn't have so much time to rest. So I think I have to learn how to deal with these things, with these kind of moments."

Scheduled for Friday are (25) Taylor "Acci-" Dent vs. Almagro, (1) Federer vs. Fabrice "The Original Magician" Santoro, (3) Hewitt vs. Acasuso, (6) Davydenko vs. Paradorn "The Thai Fighter" Srichaphan, Clement vs. Murray in a battle of qualifiers, Fernando "Hot Sauce" Verdasco vs. Capdeville, (17) Ferrer vs. Kucera, Montanes vs. (27) Olivier "The Roach" Rochus, Lammer vs. (15) Dominik "The Dominator" Hrbaty, (30) Max "The Beast" Mirnyi vs. Serra, Kiefer vs. (16) Stepanek, (11) Nalbandian vs. Peter "Nuclear" Wessels, (31) Moya vs. Sanguinetti, Djokovic vs. (22) Mario "Baby Goran" Ancic, Tursunov vs. (21) Fernando "Gonzo" Gonzalez, Nieminen vs. Phau, and in doubles highlights (2) the Bryan brothers vs. Swedes Lindstedt/Soderling, (9) Aspelin/Perry vs. Russians Andreev/Davydenko, and Czechs (10) Cermak/Friedl vs. Frenchmen Julien "United Colors of" Benneteau/Mahut.

Women Seeds Win Yawners Again at US Open

Three current or former No 1s led the winners into the third round Thursday at the US Open in (2) Lindsay Davenport (d. Parmentier 1-and-1), (3) Amelie Mauresmo (d. Karatantcheva 0-and-1), and (7) Justine Henin-Hardenne (d. Sanchez Lorenzo).

"The conditions were pretty difficult today and worse yesterday," said Henin-Hardenne who won 3-and-4. "But I did serve a couple of double faults. But when my first serve is in I win a lot of points, so I need to be very focused on that and I'm sure I'll serve better, I hope, next match."

Karatantcheva should have provided fans with a refund after an error-strewn performance due to nerves on the big stage in the first night match.

"It didn't happen to me before that I was playing the first night, on the central court in the biggest stadium of the world," said Karatantcheva, who won one game off Mauresmo. "That was a bit, 'Wow,'."

Mauresmo, the wise old veteran at age 26, said the youngsters have a lot to learn.

"I think these girls coming up, it's normal, it's great and it's good for tennis," Mauresmo said. "But they still probably have to learn a few things."

Other seeded winners on the day were (6) Elena Dementieva (d. Diaz-Oliva), (11) Patty Schnyder (d. Sucha in three), (12) Mary Pierce (d. Srebotnik), (13) Anastasia Myskina (d. Amy "Down Goes" Frazier), (15) Nathalie Dechy (d. King 1-and-1), (17) Jelena Jankovic (d. Glatch 2-and-0), (19) Elena Likhovtseva (d. Maleeva), (23) Tatiana Golovin (d. Smashnova), (24) Shinobu Asagoe (d. Linetskaya), (29) Anna Chakvetadze (d. Craybas 0-and-2), (31) Anna-Lena Groenefeld (d. Razzano from a set down), and (32) Anabel Medina Garrigues (d. Sun).

"There was a little bit of wind -- obviously not as much as yesterday -- I didn't play yesterday," Pierce said of the swirly conditions. "But it was kind of tough out there at times. I do feel like I'm serving really well. You know, I'd like to improve a little bit on my second serve. I think my return's improved as the match went on at the end today, but I do feel like I'd like to return better. I feel like I'm hitting the ball pretty good."

One seed was ousted Thursday, with Korea's Yoon Jeong Cho upending (27) Gisela Dulko.

Scheduled for Friday at the US Open are (1) Sharapova vs. Schruff, (4) Clijsters vs. (30) Sugiyama, (8) Serena vs. (25) Schiavone, (10) Venus vs. (20) Hantuchova, Mirza vs. Bartoli, (9) Petrova vs. Granville, (26) Vaidisova vs. Lisjak, and Vento-Kabchi vs. Peer.

TENNIS-X NEWS, NOTES, QUOTES AND BARBS
Look for a parking lot doubles press conference Friday at 10am at the US Open tennis center. The Bryan Bros. along with Jonas Bjorkman and Mark Knowles are among those scheduled to appear. Punch and pie will be served...Biggest story of the day Thursday was the fact the USTA moved the Patty Schnyder-Martina Sucha match from Court 10 to Arthur Ashe at 5pm, thereby jeopardizing the 7pm start of Amelie Mauresmo-Sesil Karatantcheva. What's with all the bad US Open scheduling this year, breaking in a new intern?...Weather forecast looks good for the weekend...With Andy Roddick watching at home, Robbie Ginepri, James Blake, and even Taylor Dent are making strong cases for the No. 2 Davis Cup spot...Of the 16 women's matches Thursday, just two went three sets, with numerous bagels baked -- not a lot of challenge to the top players or depth for the women at this year's US Open...Kudos to American youngster Alex Kuznetsov who broke his leg in a car accident in May, returning to win in doubles on Wednesday. He may play the junior boys event...Some advice for the Muslim Indian princess Sania Mirza: If you're going to wear t-shirts to post-match press conferences with natty slogans such as "Well-behaved women rarely make history" and "I'm cute? No shit.", you shouldn't be surprised when the media harps upon them. "I'm tired of answering that question," said Mirza in response to yet another t-shirt question. "I wear a lot of t-shirts that say a lot of things. I don't think you should take a lot of things seriously that I wear. Let's just put it this way. It's just a t-shirt."...From SI.com: "(Scoville) Jenkins will take home $40,000 for making the second round of the US Open, not bad for a player with only $48,538 in career prize money. The exposure on USA Network and CBS, and the reams of copy on him today will be worth exponentially more. Tom Ross, his agent at Octagon, told The New York Times that Jenkins does not have a major clothing or shoe deal, but he expected the player to have one signed by the time they left New York. As of Wednesday night, there was still no deal in place, but we're guessing someone will bite on a handsome and charismatic African-American player (replete with cool dreadlocks) who pushed the world No. 2 to the limit."...ATP and WTA players have pledging to donate autographed tennis equipment, apparel and memorabilia throughout the remainder of the US Open for an auction to benefit the American Red Cross hurricane relief efforts in the hardest-hit areas in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. For whatever unrelated reason, the ATP/WTA announced that the "auction will begin on September 11, the anniversary of the disaster that struck New York City four years ago." Is George Bush coordinating your press effort?...From the press release: "The best doubles players in the world have joined together to file a lawsuit against the ATP Tour, Inc. (ATP) to "save doubles" and preserve the tradition and integrity of the sport of tennis. Ironically, it is the ATP that governs the professional tennis tour, formed in 1990, to, among other things, "promote and protect the future of the sport of professional tennis" and to give tour players a voice in their sport. The suit was filed earlier today on the fortnight of the U.S. Open, the highest attended tennis tournament in the world, in which the plaintiff players are participating. Some of the top players in the suit and their attorneys will hold a press conference at the tournament site in Flushing Meadows, New York on Friday, September 2 at 10:00 a.m. E.T. The lawsuit alleged that the ATP's efforts to purportedly "enhance" doubles is in fact a concerted effort by tournament directors to run the best doubles players out of the game and turn the doubles circuit into nothing more than an exhibition marketing tool for tournament directors to promote their singles tournaments."...US Open schedulers dropped the ball Thursday night, putting the snorer Blake-Andreev on for the featured night match rather than Agassi-Dr. Ivo...TennisReporters.net's Matt Cronin on the doubles debacle: "(Leander) Paes and Co. are supposed to have a voice in the ATP, which was originally created as a players association. Their representatives of the ATP Board of Directors are Tomas Carbonell, Ricardo Acioly and Bob Brett. But they claim the trio -- along with ATP Tournament Representatives Patrice Dominguez, Charlie Pasarell and Graham Pearce -- does not have their best interests in mind. "Unfortunately, players aren't getting good representation," insisted Bob Bryan. "Unfortunately, we're breaking down with our three guys. They're coming over to the 'suits.' The tournament directors are influencing our guys." Bob Bryan went as far as calling Dominguez, the tournament director of the ATP stop in Metz, France, a "Hitler." Easy Bob...The USTA announced it will donate $500,000 from US Open proceeds toward the American Red Cross hurricane relief effort for affected communities in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama...Justin Gimel"blog," turning the boredom level up to nine in his latest blog entry after a spectacular debut for SI.com, is now deconstructing himself getting hammered by critics for earlier remarks on women's appearances of the WTA Tour: "I find it both comical and futile to bemoan the reality of that situation, because it will never change. In a perfect world, we'd focus on instilling the belief and understanding in young people that what's most important is both being the best you can be in whatever you're doing and being the best person you can be." What is this now, a self-help blog? Quit listening to feedback and, like the first entry, just write without fear about whatever pops into that one-year-of-college-educated melon...Gustavo Kuerten looked to be suffering from his recurring hip injury in his loss to Tommy Robredo...Andy Murray, Nicolas Kiefer and David Nalbandian are former US Open junior champs still alive in the main draw singles...Fabrice Santoro has a career record of 388-363...If Roger Federer wins the US Open he will be the first player in the Open Era to win Wimbledon and the US Open back-to-back in consecutive years...Lleyton Hewitt, who isn't on the best terms with the whole of Argentina, plays Jose Acasuso for the first time today.