Andy Roddick continued his recent mastery of hard-serving Greg Rusedski with a 6-3, 7-6 (4) victory in the third round of the Legg Mason Tennis Classic on Thursday night.

Top-seeded Andre Agassi had less trouble getting closer to his sixth Legg Mason title, beating Sargis Sargsian 6-3, 6-2 to join Roddick in the quarterfinals.

Andy Roddick

It was the third meeting this season between Roddick and Rusedski and the first since Roddick won a heated match in the second round at Wimbledon in straight sets.

Roddick, who won two tiebreakers in their five-set match at Wimbledon, took a 3-0 lead by breaking serve in the second game of first set.

The match from earlier this summer was clearly not forgotten by the spectators either.

Late in the first, the rangy Rusedski failed to win a point at the net prompting a fan to yell "Well Done, Well Done" mocking Rusedski's third-set meltdown during the Wimbledon match in which he argued with the chair umpire after someone in the crowd called a ball out in midpoint.

The second set returned the match to the form they have held all summer. Neither player was threatened on their serve and Roddick won all the big points.

In the tiebreaker, Roddick came up with a backhand passing shot just out of Rusedski's reach to take a 5-3 lead and was able to serve out the advantage.

Andre Agassi

Agassi, 40-9 in his 15 tournament appearances in Washington, needed just one good return game in each set to beat the 13th-seeded Sargsian for the sixth straight time.

"It's not easy. It's never easy," Agassi said. "Tonight I took care of my serve early and then settled down in other parts of my game. I thought it came around nicely."

Agassi set up his break chance in the first set with a clean winner on a forehand service return, and ended the game with an equally crisp backhand that wrongfooted Sargsian and gave Agassi a 3-1 lead.

"I wish it always went according to plan, and then I'd tell myself to win every point," Agassi said. "I came up with a couple of good returns, controlled the rallies and the quick break definitely helps you loosen up."

The second set was a much more efficient effort from Agassi as he won eight straight points to open the set to take a 2-0 lead. Agassi added to his cushion with a second service break to take a 4-1 lead on his way to serving out the match.

Also advancing to the quarterfinals of the tournament that had 14 seeded players reach the round of 16 was: No. 3 Paradorn Srichaphan, who beat No. 16 Brian Vahaly 7-6 (3), 6-4; No. 4 Fernando Gonzalez, who defeated No. 15 Mario Ancic 7-5, 7-6 (5); and No. 11 Mardy Fish, who eliminated fifth-seeded Yevgeny Kafelnikov 6-4, 4-6, 6-3.

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