He was mauled and savaged by a man called ‘The Beast’ but still Andre Agassi stood his own in a cacophonous New York arena.With an arsenal consisting of razor-sharp reflexes and a quicksilver brain, the American slew mighty Belarussian Max Mirnyi 6-7, 6-3, 7-5, 6-3 on Wednesday night to reach his eighth U.S. Open semi-final.It was journey into the last four that required all the 32-year-old’s wit, guile and brute force against a 6 ft 5 ins serving machine who eventually ran out of rockets."He’s a big guy who can use his size and force you to do something special on every point," the sixth seed said after a two hour 51-minute battle.While Agassi was raising it to thrill a home crowd with a lion-hearted display, New York-born Jennifer Capriati’s nerves got the better of her and the third seed choked her way to defeat against Amelie Mauresmo.Big stage nerves and a potent French curse felled the Australian Open champion as she let victory slip from between her fingers to hand Mauresmo her first U.S. Open semi-final spot 4-6, 7-6, 6-3.Capriati admitted she ’choked’ - players’ shorthand for succumbing to nerves - as she allowed Mauresmo record a hard-fought victory in two hours 17 minutes."I came out and I was pretty nervous," she said. "I felt kind of tight out there throughout the whole match even though I won the first set and in the second set was serving for it."I think getting tight is basically saying you choked, so."The result gave Mauresmo, a powerful baseliner from the small French town of Bornel, a fourth win in seven matches against Capriati.Mauresmo has now won their last three meetings, including the Wimbledon quarter-finals in July and the Montreal final last month.The 23-year-old Frenchwoman will next face defending champion Venus Williams in the semi-finals after she crushed sixth seed Monica Seles 6-2, 6-3.The other semi-finals sees Serena Williams face Lindsay Davenport, the last non-Williams to win at Flushing Meadows when she lifted the title in 1998.In the men’s draw, top seed and defending champion Lleyton Hewitt put an end to Younes El Aynaoui’s plans of an upset, beating the Moroccan 6-1, 7-6 4-6, 6-2 to reach the last four.El Aynaoui finished his fourth round match on Tuesday morning and simply could not last the pace against one of the most tenacious battlers in the game. "I feel pretty good at the moment," Hewitt said. (Reuters)
