CINCINNATI Agassi wins first match

The top two seeds, including Andy Roddick, will begin tournament play today.
MASON, Ohio (AP) -- Andre Agassi won his opening match Monday at the $2.5 million Tennis Masters Cincinnati when Mardy Fish quit during the third set because of a sore back.
Agassi, 34, isn't sure whether this will be his final year on the tour and is hoping to be back in form in time for the U.S. Open. Agassi has recovered from a sore hip that bothered him this summer and forced him to skip Wimbledon.
His goal as the No. 11 seed in Cincinnati is to build confidence heading into the U.S. Open.
"I need all these matches now to do that," Agassi said. "I've got to string a few together now. So it would be really nice to see my game elevate as the tournament progresses."
Agassi lost the first set 4-6, then pulled out a second-set tiebreaker 7-3 when Fish double-faulted. He led 4-1 in the third set when Fish quit because of a sore back, which also forced him to withdraw from last week's tournament in Toronto.
Top seeds off
The tournament's top two seeds were off Monday.
Roger Federer, who beat Andy Roddick at the Tennis Masters Canada on Sunday, will put his 23-match winning streak on the line today against Dominik Hrbaty. Roddick, the No. 2 seed, plays Max Mirnyi in an evening match.
There was only one major upset in the first round Monday. Tommy Haas continued his comeback from shoulder surgery by beating eighth-seeded Rainer Schuettler in three sets.
The rest of the top seeds advanced. French Open champion Gaston Gaudio, fourth-seeded Carlos Moya, 10th-seeded Lleyton Hewitt and 14th-seeded Marat Safin also won first-round matches.
Haas, who got a wild-card berth, beat Schuettler for the first time in five matches, 6-3, 1-6, 6-4. He broke Schuettler's serve in the final game and clinched the win when Schuettler sent a backhand wide.
"I finally got a win," Haas said. "It certainly wasn't a pretty match. In the end, it came down to a couple of points here and there."
Steady recovery
Haas has been making a steady recovery from shoulder problems. He didn't play last year after rotator cuff surgery.
Gaudio, seeded ninth, beat Jan Michael-Gambrill 6-4, 6-2 to open the tournament. Moya needed three sets to eliminate qualifier Arvind Parmar 3-6, 7-5, 6-2. Safin beat Jiri Novak 6-3, 6-0.
Hewitt, another player looking to rebuild momentum for the U.S. Open, held serve throughout a 6-2, 6-4 win over Alex Bogomolov Jr. Hewitt had his streak of 75 weeks at No. 1 broken last year. The 2001 U.S. Open and 2002 Wimbledon champion hasn't been able to play well consistently.
"There's been patches, a couple of matches here and there. At Wimbledon, I played pretty well," said Hewitt, who lost to Federer in the quarterfinals.
Sixteenth-seeded Andrei Pavel was the first seeded player eliminated, losing to Wayne Arthurs 7-6 (5), 6-3. The first-round loss was Pavel's fourth in five appearances in the tournament.