Agassi strolling in Meadows

Tuesday, Sept. 7, 1999 | 10:30 a.m.

SUN WIRE REPORTS

NEW YORK -- Las Vegas' Andre Agassi continued his waltz Monday at the U.S. Open tennis championships.

Agassi, the No. 2 seed, easily beat Arnaud Clement to advance to the men's quarterfinals, while defending champion Lindsay Davenport, Monica Seles and Serena Williams advanced in women's singles at the tennis complex in Flushing Meadows, N.Y.

Agassi, the French Open champion and Wimbledon finalist, beat France's Clement 6-4, 6-4, 6-3. He'll next play France's Nicolas Escude, who upset 10th seed Marcelo Rios of Spain 6-2, 6-3, 7-5 to become the first qualifier to reach the final eight in the Open Era.

"I never would have guessed I'd be playing him in the quarterfinals," said Agassi, who has only lost one set in his four matches at the U.S. Open.

In other men's singles matches, third-seeded Yevgeny Kafelnikov of Russia beat Ukraine's Andrei Medvedev 7-6 (7-5), 6-1, 6-0, and 12th-seed Richard Krajicek of the Netherlands downed American Vincent Spadea 6-2, 7-6 (7-3), 6-2.

Lindsay Davenport is getting monotonous. Put her on the court, and two sets later she has another victory.

Davenport's latest win, 6-1, 6-2 over ninth-seeded Julie Halard-Decugis of France, put Davenport into the quarterfinals, just three wins away from a second consecutive Grand Slam tournament title. She has yet to be extended to three sets, nor has she been kept on court for more than an hour in any of her matches.

"Regardless of how easy the scores have been in my matches, I've played players I think are all in the top 30," Davenport said of her run to the quarters. "It's not like I've had an easy draw. But I've played very well to have quick matches."

Also posting fourth-round victories Monday were the fourth-seeded Seles, No. 5 Mary Pierce and No. 7 Williams. In the quarterfinals, Davenport will face Pierce and Seles will play Williams.

Today, No. 1-seeded Martina Hingis was scheduled against unseeded Anke Huber, and No. 3 Venus Williams, Serena's older sister, meets No. 12 Barbara Schett as the top half of the women's draw goes after semifinal berths.

The men complete their quarterfinal pairings, with No. 5 Gustavo Kuerten and Magnus Norman starting off the day.

Davenport and Pierce are a study in power, pure and simple. Stand back and blast away.

"I'm looking forward to playing Mary," said Davenport, also the reigning Wimbledon champion. "It's going to be a hard-hitting battle."

Against Halard-Decugis, it was payback time for Davenport, who lost to the French woman the last time they played, in Los Angeles.

"I didn't play her as well as I could have when I played her in L.A.," Davenport said. "I just wasn't concentrating, giving it 110 percent like you need to do every time you go out on the court.

"Tonight, I was very focused from point one."

Pierce scored a 6-3, 7-6 (8-6) victory over Sabine Appelmans.

That won't be the only hard-hitting match coming up.

Seles looked impressive in reaching the quarters with a 6-4, 6-3 victory over Jennifer Capriati.

Against Serena Williams, Seles knows she'll be facing "a lot of hard and fast balls" that will be tough to keep up with.

"She covers more ground than I do at this point, today or tomorrow," Seles said. "From that point of view, she does have the advantage."

The last time Krajicek and Spadea met was in the second round of the French Open when Spadea "really beat me badly," Krajicek said. "I had no chance."

Not true Monday night, as Krajicek unloaded 16 aces, many of them out wide.

"I was serving very good," Krajicek said in an understatement.

"He was somehow not trying to adjust to it. I was serving a lot out wide. My coach told me before the match that's the place to go against him."

After his third-round match, Krajicek said only three players had a chance to win the U.S. Open, naming himself, Kafelnikov and Agassi.

All are in the bottom half of the draw.