Agassi returns to right the wrongs

Having wiped the slate clean of so many errors of judgement from his callow days, the 32-year-old Andre Agassi has created an opportunity to put the record straight at the Italian Open when he plays Tommy Haas, of Germany, in the final here today.

Thirteen years ago, it was not so much that Agassi netted the ball on his championship point in the fourth set of the final against Alberto Mancini, of Argentina, but the way the Las Vegan lost heart in the fifth set, which Mancini won 6-1. The anti-climax overshadowed the fact that Agassi, the second seed, eliminated Pete Sampras, Leo Lavalle, Guillermo Perez-Roldan and Sergi Bruguera without dropping a set.

After advancing to only his second final here yesterday – again without losing a set – with an impressive semi-final victory against Jiri Novak, of the Czech Republic, 7-5 6-4, Agassi was asked if he is related to the player who lost to Mancini in 1989. "Different decade, different century, different millennium," he said. Different Agassi too.

"I think that is a function of being young and inexperienced," he elaborated. "I was pretty dejected after the loss of that fourth set; my problems in the fifth set became both physical and mental. Mancini raised his game, the crowd really got behind him after his comeback. He played well, and I was discouraged. That's all it takes."

Agassi's displays this week have held the tournament together as younger leading players failed to do themselves justice, for one reason or another: injury, sickness, weariness, loss of form, loss of concentration, lack of spirit.

Agassi, a fit and eager ninth seed, has either swept the opposition aside, as was the case with Nicolas Kiefer and Michel Kratochvil, or ground them down, as happened to Agustin Calleri, or outplayed them, as Novak acknowledged yesterday after performing well, but not well enough.

After saving the first two break points of the match, in the second and fourth games, and failing to convert any of three break points at 3-3, Agassi cracked Novak's serve for 6-5 and fended off two break points in securing the opening set after 52 minutes. The second set was even until Agassi responded to a second serve from Novak with a fierce return to break for 5-4. The American needed four match points to serve the match out.

Haas defeated Andy Roddick 6-1 7-5, denying the tournament their first all- American men's singles final in their history, which goes back to 1930. The 19-year-old Roddick could barely keep the ball in court in the first set, but improved enough to push Haas in the second set. The 24-year-old from Hamburg has lost three of his previous matches against Agassi, but he has matured since winning his first Masters Series tournament last October. He can be expected to give Agassi a testing time today unless a recurring back injury affects him over the best of five sets.

Tim Henman and Greg Rusedski have been drawn to meet in the second round of the Masters Series tournament in Hamburg this week, as they were in Rome where the Britons both lost in the first round. In Hamburg, Henman, the fifth seed, plays Nicolas Escude, of France, No 27 in the ATP's tournament entry system, in the first round. Rusedski has drawn a qualifier.