Agassi: "He was tricky"

Escude, ranked 136th, was the first qualifier to reach the quarter-finals in the history of the championships - and made Agassi sweat in a tense match.

Second seed Agassi needed nearly two hours to come up with a 7-6 (7/3), 6-3, 6-4 victory.

Nicolas Escude was the first qualifier to reach the quarter-finals

He had just one break point in the opening set, which he failed to convert, but gave himself some breathing room with the tie-break win.

"It took me a while to get the feel for his style," Agassi said. "I was second guessing his swings, not reading his serve.

"I did what I needed to do today. It's going to take more than that to win a tournament of this magnitude. I'm going to have to step up."

Escude kept him working until the bitter end, Agassi saving a break point in the final game before Escude netted a forehand.

48 aces

Earlier, Yevgeny Kafelnikov withstood a barrage of aces from Richard Krajicek to become the first man through to the men's semi-finals.

Krajicek, the 12th seed from the Netherlands, sent a record 48 aces past Kafelnikov but could not stop the third-seeded Russian, who won 7-6 (7/0), 7-6 (7/4), 3-6, 1-6, 7-6 (7/5).

"It's definitely one of the best matches I've played in my career," said Kafelnikov, the reigning Australian Open champion.

"That's why he was holding his serve pretty easy. I was counting on that we would get to this stage of the match and that I would have a few chances in a tiebreaker."

Kafelnikov, who will now play Andre Agassi in the semi-final, dominated the tie-breaks.

He took a 6-2 lead in the fifth-set tie-break, but gave away his first match point with a forehand wide.