The sun shone on Andre Agassi at Munich yesterday. After three days of drizzle, rain and overcast skies, the resurgent American made use of a glorious spring day to beat Rainer Schuttler 6-1, 6-4 and earn a quarter-final today in the BMW Open against the number two seed Jonas Bjorkman.

Greg Rusedski and Tim Henman, left to practise for next week's lucrative Super Nine tournament in Hamburg, must have been cursing their luck. Such weather would certainly have given their attacking games more bite on the slow clay, but the 70degree heat came a day late after the British pair's exit.

Agassi, though, marches on. The world number 141 less than six months ago and needing to play second-tier tournaments to lift his ranking, he is now just a couple of wins short of being seeded for the French Open. More pertinently, he is looking increasingly like champion material for Roland Garros.

The only time he trailed yesterday was after the first point. He then broke the somewhat overeager German's first service game and was a set up after 22 minutes.

Schuttler came a little more into the match in the second set but was always up against it once Agassi broke his serve in the third game. With the ball coming off the court noticeably faster than in the first three days, Agassi needed only 56 minutes in all.