NEW YORK - If Andre Agassi is feeling a little lonely out there, with contemporaries Pete Sampras and Michael Chang leaving tennis, Andy Roddick would be happy to make a date for the U.S. Open final.
One by one, the American stars who grew up playing junior tennis against each other in the 1980s and collected Grand Slam singles titles together more than a decade is calling it quits.
Chang lost his final match as a pro Tuesday at the U.S. Open in a more muted farewell than Sampras' retirement announcement the night before. Jim Courier, the first of the ol' gang to retire, called the match from the TV booth.
And Agassi? He isn't done yet, not by a long shot.
Still calibrating points perfectly, lacing lines with hit-it-as-soon-as-possible groundstrokes, Agassi, 33, began his run as the oldest top-seeded player in the Open era by beating Alex Corretja 6-1, 6-2, 6-2 in the first round.
"It's a weird feeling. You just sort of expect to leave the dance with the ones you came with. When they decide that it's time for them, it's a sad feeling," Agassi said. "I'm certainly proud to still be doing this, this long and at this level."
Agassi is outlasting members of his age group - and outplaying most of the younger set. He is 40-7 in 2003 with four titles, including his eighth major in January at the Australian Open, tying for sixth most in history.
Roddick, who turns 21 Saturday, is just getting started; he handled Tim Henman 6-3, 7-6 (7-2), 6-3. It was a matchup worthy of Week 2 at a major rather than Day 2, but four-time Wimbledon semifinalist Henman missed two months after shoulder surgery in February and has slipped to 34th in the rankings.
"I haven't done anything yet, man. I'm just in the second round," said Roddick, 30-2 since pairing with Agassi's former coach, Brad Gilbert. "It's always going to be Andre's tournament until he retires."
Roddick is the first since Agassi in 1995 to enter the U.S. Open with 20 match wins on the hardcourt circuit. The lone blemish on his 20-1 record came courtesy of Henman in Washington.
This time, Henman was tentative on key points. When Henman served for the second set, Roddick broke at love, then dominated the tiebreaker, including a service winner at 140 mph.
The fourth-seeded Roddick would like to stick around a little longer than he has been at majors. He was a semifinalist at the Australian Open and Wimbledon this year, and his past two U.S. Opens ended with quarterfinal losses to the eventual champion, including Sampras in 2002.
While Sampras waited a year after his last match - beating Agassi in the Open final - to tell the world he was finished, Chang said at the beginning of the year this would be it. There was no big celebration of Chang's career Tuesday, though the USTA has talked with him about doing something next week.
A few thousand fans were on hand for the start of his 6-3, 7-5, 5-7, 6-4 loss to the No. 15-seeded Fernando Gonzalez, but Chang gave it his all.
"On court, it would be nice to be able to be remembered as a person that gave his best - win, lose or draw," said Chang, 31, whose career highlight was winning the 1989 French Open at age 17. "It's going to be tough leaving tennis."
TV analyst John McEnroe called Chang "the ultimate hustler - dug as deep as anyone you'll see on a tennis court."
A three-time French Open champion, Gustavo Kuerten, was eliminated 5-7, 6-2, 6-2, 4-6, 7-6 (7-1) by qualifier Dmitry Tursunov. Three other seeded men lost: No. 21 Felix Mantilla, No. 29 Feliciano Lopez and No. 32 Vince Spadea.
Among the women, Saddlebrook's Jennifer Capriati overpowered Cristina Torrens Valero 6-0, 6-1, and French Open champion Justine Henin-Hardenne started off with a 7-5, 6-3 victory over Aniko Kapros, a qualifier who upset her in the first round at Roland Garros last year. No. 10 Magdalena Maleeva, No. 16 Elena Bovina, No. 21 Anna Pistolesi and No. 31 Alexandra Stevenson were the seeded players exiting early.
