Dent storms back to win

Former Corona del Mar High standout Taylor Dent upset 15th-seeded

Fernando Gonzalez of Chile Saturday in five sets to reach the fourth

round of the U.S. Open, where he will possibly face No. 1 seed Andre

Agassi.

Dent, who had never made it past the second round in five previous

U.S. Open tournaments, came back to defeat Gonzalez, 7-6 (11-9), 6-7

(3-7), 3-6, 7-6 (7-4), 6-4, in a match that lasted more than three

hours, 20 minutes and that’s not including a long rain delay that

took the momentum away from Dent in the second set.

The rain postponed Agassi’s third-round match against Yevgeny

Kafelnikov, which was suspended in the second set with Agassi

leading, 6-3, 0-1.

Before the rains came down, Dent had taken a one-set advantage and

was serving at 5-4 in the second set when play was halted. When the

players returned to the court, three hours and three minutes later,

Gonzalez broke serve and went on to win the tiebreaker to even the

match at 1-1.

Trailing two sets to one and taking advantage of Gonzales’

inability to break serve -- he converted on just three on 18

opportunities -- Dent came back to win the fourth set in a tiebreaker

and then closed out the match with a 6-4 victory in the final set.

In his previous appearances at the U.S. Open, Dent had reached the

second round twice, in 1998 and 2001, but this was his first foray

into the third round. Gonzalez, whom Dent had never played before,

was a quarterfinalist last year. This is Dent’s best performance in a

Grand Slam. He’s ranked 74th in the world.

Dent, 22, is scheduled to face Agassi or Kafelnikov on Monday,

with the time to be determined late Sunday.