Dent forced to exit early from Open

Taylor Dent continually frustrated No. 1-seed Andre Agassi in their

rain-delayed fourth-round match at the U.S. Open in New York Tuesday.

But the pain in Dent’s leg from a torn thigh muscle was too

frustrating for him and forced the former Corona del Mar High

standout to retire after he lost the third set to the two-time

tournament champion.

Hobbling because of the injury, Dent retired after he dropped the

third set to give Agassi a 6-7 (5-7), 6-4, 7-5 lead.

“It’s a shame,” Dent said in a post-match news conference. “But

it’s nothing serious I am sure ... hopefully I will be out there and

kicking some butts quite soon.”

Originally scheduled to play Monday, but postponed because of

rain, the two players were forced to sit for seven hours Tuesday

before the precipitation finally halted and play was able to resume.

Delays continued throughout the match, with the longest coming

after Agassi had taken a 5-4 lead in the first set, 31 minutes into

the match.

When the players returned to action 35 minutes later, Dent broke

Agassi’s serve to pull even in the set and went on to take a one-set

lead by winning a tiebreaker, 7-5.

Dent, 22, had opportunities to expand upon that lead in the second

set, which began after another half-hour rain delay, but the

consistent restarts eventually took a toll on his hamstring. He began

to receive treatment on his leg in between sets and was noticeably

favoring the injury. He wore a wrap around the leg for the latter

portion of the match, but continued to play.

Agassi broke Dent’s serve, which averaged 120 mph on first serves

and 108 on second serves, in the 10th game of the second set to win

6-4. Dent again pushed the No. 1 ranked player to his limit in the

third set, losing 7-5, before calling it quits because of the leg

injury.

Dent had 44 winners compared to Agassi’s 43 in the match, but Dent

also committed 36 unforced errors. His serve-and-volley game caused

struggles for Agassi, but the start and stop nature of the match

eventually became too much trouble for Dent’s thigh injury.

“Taylor is a great competitor and a good guy,” Agassi said in his

post-match news conference. “To see him get injured in a big match is

just outright disappointing.”