Agassi ousted Armenian buddy Sargis Sagsian 6-3, 6-2, while Roddick won for the 22nd time in his past 24 matches by ousting Britain's Greg Rusedski 6-3, 7-6 (7/4) to book quarterfinal date Friday with his boyhood pal Mardy Fish.

"It's always a little weird, but you always have a job to do," Roddick said. "It's not like I'm going to miss a forehand or not play as well because I'm playing a friend."

Agassi, seeking his sixth title here but first since 1999, dominated the opening set and won the first eight points of the second to seize command on his way to winning in 58 minutes for a 6-0 lifetime lead on his friend and foe.

"It's never easy, but I felt pretty comfortable. I took care of my serve early and settled into my game nicely," Agassi said. "I don't take him too lightly. You don't take much for granted. I still have to go out and execute."

The 33-year-old American will face defending champion James Blake on Friday for a semifinal berth at the 600,000-dollar hardcourt event, a US Open tuneup. Blake, an American seeded sixth, beat Germany's Lars Burgsmuller 3-6, 7-5, 6-4.

Other quarterfinals send Britain's Tim Henman against Thai third seed Paradorn Srichaphan and fourth seed Fernando Gonzalez of Chile against seventh seed Max Mirnyi of Belarus.

Paradorn, who lost to Blake in last year's final here, ousted 80th-ranked American Brian Vahaly 7-6 (7/3), 6-4. Henman beat Russian eighth seed Nikolay Davydenko 6-3, 6-4. Henman has won four of five career meetings with Paradorn.

"I take confidence from the record," Henman said. "Since those first three matches, he has come such a long way. On these type of courts he's very competitive."

Hot Roddick, unbroken in his past 40 service games, seeks his fourth title in six events and second title here in three years. Roddick won at St. Poelten, Queen's and last week at Indianapolis, downing Paradorn in the final.

"He's probably the hottest player on the tour right now," Rusedski said.

Roddick took the only service break of the match off Rusedski in the second game of the opening set, then won the only service point lost by the server in the tie-breaker to claim the battle of 149-mph servers.

"It was one point either way in that breaker. I was just lucky enough to his a backhand passing shot for the winner," Roddick said. "I couldn't hit a backhand into the ocean last year. I feel a lot better about it this year."

That's in part due to new coach Brad Gilbert, Agassi's former coach who took over when Roddick fired Frenchman Tarik Benhabiles.

"Brad is getting him to get a little air under the ball, not to go for as much, make as many errors, change up his serves a little bit," Rusedski said.

The American also beat Rusedski at Queen's and Wimbledon, although the British basher only returned at the French Open from left foot surgery last October.

"I've still got room for improvement, but not much. Little things, more sharpness. I'm getting close to getting that last five percent, the hardest part. If I get that I will be in good shape."