Tennis - US Open:Andre Agassi staved off his own retirement with a riveting 6-7 (4-7) 7-6 (10-8) 7-6 (8-6) 6-2 victory over Romania's Andrei Pavel on what turned out to be a late Monday night at the US Open.
It was the first match at the newly-named USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center and 23,736 fans - a record crowd for a night session - watched Agassi stage an emotional comeback.
Having levelled the match at one-set all, Agassi lost the first four games of the third but after a change of racket reeled off five straight games to wrestle back control.
He took a third consecutive tie-break to kill Pavel's resistance and went on to clinch victory in the fourth set. When the three hour, 31 minute match, Agassi - playing the Open for the 21st time - received a standing ovation.
The win means Agassi's remarkable career will continue tomorrow against eighth-seeded Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus.
"I want to be here real bad for the whole two weeks and it's six more (wins)," last year's runner-up said.
Meanwhile Andy Roddick steamrollered his first opponent to erase the memory of last year's shock first-round exit. The American number nine seed and 2003 champion began what he hopes will be a long run with a 6-2 6-1 6-3 win over Frenchman Florent Serra.
"It felt clean," Roddick said of his quick victory. "I didn't hit yesterday. I got a very short warm-up but I've been hitting the ball pretty well. It's a lot better than last year. I'm really, really confident right now."
In the first big upset of the tournament, third seed Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia was dumped out by Spaniard Feliciano Lopez, 6-3 6-3 6-3.
Several of the lower-ranked seeds also bowed out, including Jarkko Nieminen (13) who was beaten in straight sets by Xavier Malisse.
Dominik Hrbaty (19) lost to Russian Mikhail Youzhny, number 24 Jose Acasuso was outlasted in five sets by Thailand's Paradorn Srichaphan and Acasuso's fellow Argentine Juan Ignacio Chela (31) was ousted by Stanislas Wawrinka.
However, sixth seed Tommy Robredo and David Ferrer (11) were first-round winners, as were young stars Novak Djokovic and Richard Gasquet.
In the women's singles, it was a good day for former champions, with Lindsay Davenport, Svetlana Kuznetsova and Justine Henin-Hardenne all progressing to the second round.
Davenport and Henin-Hardenne had few problems in their respective ties with comfortable straight-sets victories, but 2004 champion Kuznetsova found life a little harder.
Yet she also eventually came through in three sets against Sandra Kloesel.
Fourth seed Elena Dementieva also recorded a simple straight-sets victory over Laura Granville, while Nicole Vaidisova (9) saw off home hope Chanda Rubin and Patty Schnyder (7) thrashed Anna Smashnova, losing just three games.
Francesca Schiavone, the 14th seed, also lost only three games as she moved into round two.
The only big shock came when Aravane Rezai beat 15th seed Anna-Lena Groenefeld in three sets.