Safin, Hewitt advance at Open

Defending champion Marat Safin marched into what he called a 'no-lose situation' in the semifinals of the U.S. Open by routing outclassed Mariano Zabaleta 6-4 6-4 6-2 on Wednesday.

The third-seeded Russian, who won the Open crown last year in a stunning, straight-set dismissal of four-times champion Pete Sampras, will meet the winner of Wednesday night's titanic quarter-final clash between Sampras and Andre Agassi.

"It's a big honour for me to play against (either of) them," said the 21-year-old Safin.

"The way they played the other day was ridiculous," said Safin about the fourth round. "Sampras against (Patrick) Rafter and Andre against (Roger) Federer was like a joke.

"They played too good. I don't want to look ridiculous against them on the court."

But Safin, who has struggled this year through a back injury, does not rule himself out.

"For me it will be a big honour to play against Pete or Andre," said Safin, who won seven titles last year but is without a win this season.

"It would be perfect preparation for me for in the final if I win, and if I lose I would be going out against a big guy."

FRESH START

Earlier on a sunny, breezy day in Flushing Meadows, fourth seed Lleyton Hewitt made the most of a fresh start as he bounced back to win his suspended match against 16th seed Tommy Haas 3-6 7-6 6-4 6-2 to reach the quarter-finals.

Germany's Haas had been leading their fourth round contest 6-3 2-2 on Tuesday when the match, which had been delayed by rain, was suspended so it would not run into the scheduled night programme.

When play restarted on Wednesday, the 20-year-old Australian took full advantage of the delay and used his speed and consistent groundstrokes to frustrate Haas.

Hewitt pushed the second set to a tiebreak, which he dominated 7-2 after winning the first five points, including three on backhand errors from Haas.

The lightning fast Australian maintained his momentum by breaking Haas in the opening game of the third set and never looked back as he set up a two-hour, 46-minute victory, which he ended with a smash on his first match point.

"It definitely helped me coming out today," Hewitt said about the delay.

"He was serving huge yesterday afternoon and I couldn't really get on it. I had to try and guts it out.

EAGERLY AWAITED

"But I had a great tiebreaker, went up early and went on from there."

The victories by Safin and Hewitt served as a prelude to Wednesday's most eagerly awaited match --the round-of-eight battle between Australian Open champion Agassi and Sampras.

Second seed Agassi, winner of seven Grand Slam titles, trails in his career series against 10th-seeded Sampras, 17-14, but has won their last three encounters including two tournament finals this year.

The 10th-seeded Sampras, who holds the all-time record with 13 Grand Slam titles, is hoping to take another step in his quest to end a drought of 17 tournaments without a title, dating back to the 2000 Wimbledon championships.

Safin, seeded third, smacked 29 winners against the 103rd-ranked Zabaleta, who had ousted eighth-seeded Sebastien Grosjean and 30th seed Greg Rusedski of Britain on the way to the quarter-finals.

Safin may not think he is quite ready to take on Agassi or Sampras, but his vanquished opponent thought otherwise.

"I think he played unbelievable today," said 23-year-old Argentine Zabaleta. "He won last year and I think he might win this year too."

Hewitt advanced to a quarter-final match against rising American Andy Roddick, who beat fellow 19-year-old Tommy Robredo in the fourth round.

The Australian has beaten the big-serving Roddick in their only two previous matches, in the quarter-finals in Miami and in the third round of the French Open.

Hewitt knows Roddick is playing some of his best tennis of the year at Flushing Meadows.

"I think everyone is sort of pinning their hopes on Roddick being the next Andre or Pete," he said about the latest U.S. tennis sensation.