Andre Agassi's, the world's new No. 1 tennis player moved into the semifinals of the Japan Open Tennis tournament Friday with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Scott Draper, a 20-year-old Australian qualifier.
Now he gets a more experienced foe - Wayne Ferreira of South Africa, the world's 10th-ranked player, who beat Sweden's Jonas Bjorkman 6-3, 6-2."It's important that I'm playing my best tennis to win this match because he doesn't have a weakness, but he also can hit some big shots," Agassi said of Ferreira, who hasn't beaten him in four meetings.
Agassi has won three tournaments this year, including the Australian Open, and compiled a 29-2 match record through Friday.
Saturday's other match pits No. 2 seed Michael Chang, against fourth seed Jim Courier.
Chang survived a second-set match point for a 4-6, 7-6 (9-7), 6-3 victory over Sweden's Jan Apell while Courier let a 5-2 first-set lead slip away before putting away Sweden's Thomas Enqvist, seeded fifth, 7-6 (7-4), 6-0.
Draper, who came in ranked 234th in the world, served strongly, hit some acrobatic volleys and retrieved well against Agassi, but was broken in the ninth game of the first set after four deuces and again in the seventh and ninth games of the second set.
At Houston, defending champion Sabine Hack of Germany faltered briefly in the second set before charging past erratic Nino Louarsabishvili of Georgia 6-1, 6-4 in the quarterfinals of the Houston Women's Tennis Championships on Friday night.
Hack, seeded fifth, will meet No. 1 ranked Steffi Graf of Germany in Saturday's semifinals.
Asa Carlsson of Sweden will mee Meike Babel of Germany in Saturday's other semifinals match. Carlsson defeated Joannette Kruger of South Africa 6-3, 7-6 (7-5) and Babel beat seventh-seeded Sandra Cecchini 6-4, 6-3.