Agassi next in line for Federer express

Andre Agassi cannot come close to his wife Steffi Graf's portfolio of singles titles – 107, including 22 Grand Slam championships – but, a month before his 32nd birthday, the Las Vegan continues to chalk up milestones in his career.

Having won his 50th singles title, seven of them Grand Slam trophies, three weeks ago in Scottsdale, Arizona, Agassi will today attempt to extend his number of match wins to 700. If he achieves this by successfully defending the Nasdaq-100 Open, he will equal his wife's total of five singles titles in Key Biscayne.

Agassi's opponent, Roger Federer of Switzerland, has a habit of terminating winning streaks. He famously ended Pete Sampras's run of 31 matches at Wimbledon by defeating the Californian in the fourth round last year. And on Friday night Federer brought Lleyton Hewitt's sequence of 22 consecutive victories in America to a close when he defeated the Australian world No 1 in 88 minutes, 6-3 6-4.

Federer did not drop a set in five matches on the way to the final. Nor did he lose his serve, saving 10 break points in 40 games. It will be interesting to see how his serve holds up against Agassi's renowned returning over the best of five sets.

Agassi's toughest match came in his semi-final against Marcelo Rios of Chile, who had beaten him in a memorable final here in 1998. Injury decided the outcome this time, Rios retiring because of tendinitis in his right knee after Agassi had levelled the contest at 6-7 6-4. Rios saved 15 of 17 break points, and a capacity crowd of 14,000 was not best pleased to be denied a deciding set.

Federer has lost his two previous matches against Agassi in straight sets. The first meeting was in the opening round of Federer's home tournament in Basle in 1998, when he was still a junior and Agassi was headlong into an astonishing recovery from No 141 to No 6 in the world. Agassi had added four Grand Slam titles to his name by the time they met again, in the second round at the United States Open in 2001.

Today, with the transition from experience to youth gaining pace in the men's game, the 11 years between Agassi and his 20-year-old challenger is the biggest age difference in a final here since 1988, when the 23-year-old Mats Wilander defeated the 35-year-old Jimmy Connors in four sets.

"I'm just happy to give myself a chance to win the tournament in my first Masters Series final," Federer said, having stunned Hewitt with his impressive serving and volleying in the semi-finals. "I've never beaten a No 1 player before, only players who had been No 1, like Pete Sampras. I've broken his winning streak. So it's quite a special moment for me."

Asked how he had managed to subdue Hewitt, who won the Masters Series event in Indian Wells two weeks ago by swatting Tim Henman, the British No 1, in the final, Federer said: "I found the rhythm again on my serve. It was somehow missing in the last few weeks, and also my baseline game was not as it is now.

"I didn't panic from the baseline. I could stay with him when I wanted. I just mixed my game up really well. I really picked the shots to come into the net, and I've been working on my volleys."

Will he be able to repeat the formula against Agassi, who is particularly difficult to overcome on American hard courts?

"Andre's one of the best hard-court players around next to Lleyton," Federer said. "I found good tactics in the last few matches against the different players I played. I just have to find the right one against Andre, otherwise it's going to be tough."