BY MICHAEL PERRY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Vince Spadea has knocked off Andre Agassi and Richard Krajicek. Next: Pete Sampras.
(Steven M. Herppich photo)
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MASON -- Top seed Pete Sampras knocked one of America's top young players out of the Great American Insurance ATP Championship on Thursday. Tonight, he faces another.
Sampras got past 21-year-old Jan-Michael Gambill in straight sets and next goes up against red-hot 24-year-old Vince Spadea, who defeated ninth-ranke
d Andre Agassi on Wednesday and No. 8 Richard Krajicek on Thursday.
The match is at 7 p.m. on Center Court. It is the second Mercedes Super 9 quarterfinals for Spadea.
He is 0-3 and has never won a set against Sampras in his career; they last met at the 1996 Lipton Championships in Key Biscayne, Fla.
"It's a pretty straightforward match," Sampras said. "Any time you beat Andre in a tournament, you must be playing well."
Said Spadea: "Sampras feels good in this kind of tournament, and so do I. So it's a battle. It's about two guys going out there and seeing who can take who out."
Only four seeded players remain in the field.
Here's a look at the other quarterfinals (all matches on Center Court):
Thomas Johansson vs. Magnus Larsson (11 a.m.): A battle between two unseeded Swedes. They have met only once before, with Larsson winning in Rome in 1997. Daniel Vacek vs. Yevgeny Kafelnikov (about 1 p.m.): Doubles partners in this tournament square off today. Kafelnikov is the lowest remaining seed (seventh). Petr Korda vs. Patrick Rafter (about 3 p.m.): This is the only match between seeds (Korda is No. 3, Rafter No. 5). Korda leads their series 3-1, with his most recent victory coming in Stuttgart, Germany, in 1997. Rafter's only victory came in the 1997 Grand Slam Cup.
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