Agassi on cruise control

Agassi was unstoppable against the hapless Costa

 Quarter-final results from Rome

 Photo gallery: see the day's action

Andre Agassi put in a near-faultless performance to reach the semi-finals of the Rome Tennis Masters and strike fear into his rivals ahead of the upcoming French Open.

Albert Costa, a well-respected clay-court specialist, was helpless against a barrage of winners from the seven-times grand slam champion, who ran out a 6-2 6-2 winner.

The experienced Spaniard did not play badly against Agassi but was thwarted by a player who manouevred his opponent about the court at will.

"It's always tough but today I was just hitting the ball really well," said Agassi.

Agassi is yet to win the Rome event, although he had a match point in the final 13 years ago against Alberto Mancini.

The next to face the in-form American will be Jiri Novak, who became the first man to reach the semi-finals despite a momentous struggle against rising American star James Blake.

Roddick reached the semi-finals at his first attempt

Novak saved three match points in the second set, one with a fortuitous net-cord, before registering a 3-6, 7-6 (9-7) 6-4 win.

Blake won the opening set in only 25 minutes and looked set to reach his second semi-final of the year when he reached 6-4 in the second set tie-break.

The 22-year-old had Novak floundering at the back of the court but the Czech's desperate shot flicked up off the net for a lucky winner, deceiving Blake who was poised to finish off the match at the net.

Novak saved two further match points to break Blake's resistance and broke to love in the third game of the deciding set to wrap up the win.

"I'd like to congratulate James because he was playing great," said Novak.

"It was only luck that I win this match because he was playing so well. He was definitely the better player for the first two sets but I just fought."

Unheralded

Should Novak win the tournament, he will overtake Thomas Johansson to lead the ATP's Champions Race after a steady, if largely unheralded, start to the season.

He has reached the semi-finals of four tournaments, including the Australian Open.

Andy Roddick was made to dig deep by Tommy Robredo as the 13th seed came back from a break down in each set to book his place in the last four.

Roddick, playing in the Rome event for the first time, is yet to hit top form but was helped when his inexperienced opponent was unable to capitalise on his advantage.

"This tournament I haven't been starting out too well," Roddick admitted.

"That's something I'm going to have to change if I want to keep going here.

"It was tough mentally out there today so I'm just glad to get out with a win."

The 19-year-old now faces a tricky semi-final against seventh seed Tommy Haas, who scored a surprise 6-3 6-4 win over former French Open champion Carlos Moya.

Moya failed to cope with the German's big hitting, losing his serve to go 4-3 down in the first set, and again at the start of the second set.

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ATP Masters Series quarter-final results:
(Seedings in bold)

14 J Novak (Cze) bt J Blake (US) 3-6, 7-6 (9-7) 6-4
9 A Agassi (US) bt A Costa (Spa) 6-2 6-2
13 A Roddick (US) bt T Robredo (Spa) 6-4 7-6 (7-2)
7 T Haas (Ger) bt C Moya (Spa) 6-3 6-4

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