Agassi savours prospect of renewing Rafter rivalry

To the great Wimbledon traditions of grass, white clothing and strawberries can now be added a semi-final between Andre Agassi and Pat Rafter. They will meet at that stage for the third year running after the American celebrated Independence Day with victory in four sets over Nicolas Escude, of France, and the Queenslander capitalised on a wretched performance by Sweden's Thomas Enqvist, winning 6-1, 6-3, 7-6 in under two hours.

Last year's encounter produced the outstanding match of the men's tournament, Rafter prevailing in the fifth set then blowing his chance in the final against Pete Sampras; 12 months earlier, Agassi had things much his own way. "I'm really looking forward to it," the Las Vegan said. "I've had some great matches with him and they're always ones to remember. But we're down to the last four and everyone has a shot."

No more shots, however, for Escude, the 24th seed, who gave it his best one while struggling with a minor thigh injury that required treatment in the second set. He had won the first, playing, Agassi admitted "a great tie-breaker". That was preceded by two breaks each, the second seed dropping his serve in successive games at one stage and saving three set points before conceding.

From then on, Agassi was generally in control, drawing level by taking the second 6-3 and then finishing off a dull third set by breaking for 5-4 with three dramatic passing shots and serving out to love. Escude claimed to be hampered by his injury and offered little resistance in losing the fourth set 6-2 and with it the match. "I think it was not a good match," Escude said. "I was a little tired and my leg was very bad."

Agassi's victory brought him level with John McEnroe in the number of wins in Grand Slam events and only Jimmy Connors, Ivan Lendl, Sampras and Stefan Edberg have more to their name. "Now I'd like to win two more here," he said.

Both of yesterday's matches were played on a blustery Court One, where services, as well as answers, were blowing in the wind. The two more experienced men controlled theirs better but the overall quality was disappointing for spectators who had paid £47 to watch.

Enqvist, like Agassi, went into his match having not conceded a set. In his case, that record lasted no more than 21 minutes, the Swede winning only a single point against the serve while his own was undermined by regular double-faults. The first of them opened the way for Rafter to break in the second game, which he did on a net cord, and three more followed in the sixth game, leaving him 5-1 down. A combination of high sun and the stiff breeze did not provide ideal serving conditions, (Rafter had to come up with a "sorry, mate" more than once after being troubled with his toss) but that was hardly an excuse for the 10th seed's ineptitude. Towards the end of the match, he was getting less than a third of his first serves in.

In the second set, there was little improvement. Rafter, briefly threatened at 0-30 in the sixth game after his first double-fault, responded with three aces in a row, and – just to emphasise how everything was going his way – then benefited from a line judge's correction after calling his serve out. The crucial break came in the next game, another catastrophic one for Enqvist, who led 40-0, then served three doubles in four points and was broken.

The match had been going 72 minutes before the Swede finally had a break point, converting it with a fierce cross-court backhand to lead 3-1 in the third, only for Rafter to break back at 4-4 and cruise through the tie-break until Enqvist defiantly saved three match points. "It was tough out there," Enqvist said, speaking of the conditions, though he might have been describing the match.

"I took a while to find my rhythm and I didn't really feel comfortable on the court." Rafter said: "He's got a very big serve and it's very hard to serve the way he does and keep getting them in. I'm gradually getting better with each match. If I can play as well as last year I'd have a chance."

Reluctant to talk about meeting Agassi, who had only just begun his match at the time, he would only say: "There's nothing more exciting than playing a guy like Andre at Wimbledon. It would be better if it was the final, actually." The third seed confirmed that he would be taking "several months" off this summer but would not say whether his break from the game would become permanent. Like Agassi, he has Friday on his mind.