Agassi leaves more peers behind, wins in 1st round

NEW YORK -- It's getting a bit lonely out there for Andre Agassi.

One by one, the generation of American stars who grew up playing junior tennis against each other in the 1980s and collected Grand Slam singles titles together for more than a decade is calling it quits.

Michael Chang lost his final match as a pro Tuesday at the U.S. Open in a far more muted farewell than Pete Sampras' retirement announcement the night before. Jim Courier, the first of the ol' gang to stop, called Chang's match from the TV booth.

And Agassi? He isn't done yet, not by a long shot.

Still calibrating points perfectly, lacing lines with hit-it-as-soon-as-possible groundstrokes, the 33-year-old Agassi began his run as the oldest top-seeded player in the Open era by beating Alex Corretja 6-1, 6-2, 6-2 in the first round.

"It's a weird feeling. You just sort of expect to leave the dance with the ones you came with. When they decide that it's time for them, it's a sad feeling," Agassi said.

"I'm certainly proud to still be doing this, this long and at this level."

At 20, Andy Roddick is just getting started, and he looked pretty impressive in handling Tim Henman 6-3, 7-6 (2), 6-3. It was a matchup worthy of Week 2 at a major rather than Day 2, but four-time Wimbledon semifinalist Henman missed two months after shoulder surgery in February and has slipped to 34th in the rankings.

While Sampras waited a year after his last match -- beating Agassi in the 2002 U.S. Open final -- to tell the world he was finished, Chang has been on a farewell tour since the beginning of the season and made clear the Open would be it for him.

And unlike the half-hour tribute to Sampras replete with a choir and speeches, there was no big celebration of Chang's career Tuesday, although the U.S. Tennis Association has talked with him about doing something next week.

Only a few thousand fans were on hand for the start of his match against No. 15-seeded Fernando Gonzalez, but, as always, Chang gave it his all.

"On court, it would be nice to be able to be remembered as a person that gave his best -- win, lose or draw," said Chang, whose career highlight was winning the 1989 French Open at age 17. "It's going to be tough leaving tennis."

He had his chances against Gonzalez, and produced a few top-notch shots, but in the end succumbed to the Chilean's all-out power game 6-3, 7-5, 5-7, 6-4.

Winners included Australian Open runner-up Rainer Schuettler, No. 11 Paradorn Srichaphan, two-time major champion Yevgeny Kafelnikov and 2002 French Open champion Albert Costa.

Complete results in Scoreboard on 2B.