NEW YORK -- Maybe, just maybe Andy Roddick isn't the second coming of Pete Sampras.

	Pete Sampras has been waiting all year for his game to click and it's finally happening.

Maybe -- no, definitely -- it's time to let Pete Sampras decide when his time has come.

On a night when the classic storyline demanded he relinquish the torch of American tennis, Sampras resisted the stereotypical typecasting. Now a doddering 31, Sampras schooled 20-year-old Roddick with breathtaking ease. The quarterfinal result at Arthur Ashe Stadium -- 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 -- failed to capture the command he demonstrated.

His serve had an extra crackle and, even when he missed the first one, Sampras still came bounding toward the net and won most points (47 of 60) with precise, controlled volleys. With all due respect to Greg Rusedski, the man did not look a step-and-a-half slow.

"No," Roddick said in his post-match press conference. "You guys say Pete is washed up. I never said it. I don't think anybody doubts the fact that he's capable of great tennis, still.

"He always backs it up."

Sampras looked a little stunned himself when the match ended just 90 minutes after it began.

"I feel like in the big moments, I have the goods," Sampras said.

It used to be Wimbledon, where he has won seven times, that Sampras really, really felt it. Now, it seems the National Tennis Center has become the comfort food for his hungry game. He is now 20-0 in night matches here.

He hasn't won a tournament in well over two years -- not even in Houston, not even in Stuttgart -- but he reached the finals here a year ago, knocking off three former champions (Agassi, Rafter and Safin) in the process. This year, he entered the tournament with a middling 20-17 record, then orchestrated a startling makeover.

After Rusedski extended him to five sets in the third round, Sampras bounced No. 3 seed Tommy Haas in four sets. He hadn't won a set from Roddick in two previous meetings, but he won in straight sets.

In theory, it's supposed to get harder as you progress through the draw.

"This is the U.S. Open. This is what I play for," Sampras said when asked to explain the transformation. "I'm confident in the big moment that I'm going to come through. It's all there. I haven't shown much of it this year ... You kind of wait for it. I've been pretty patient all year, finally for it to kind of click. It's nice that it's happening here."

Suddenly, Sampras' tough draw has opened up. He's got Dutchman Sjeng Schalken in Saturday's semifinals and, presumably, the winner of Lleyton Hewitt and Andre Agassi in the final. And how much would Sampras enjoy extending his Grand Slam singles title total to 14 against Agassi, his long-time rival, or Hewitt, the young Australian who humbled him in last year's final?

From the beginning, when Roddick guided a nervous backhand service return into the net, the guy who was all of 6 years old when Sampras turned professional in 1988, looked skittish and tentative. Sampras appeared unnervingly relaxed. Roddick saved two break points in the second game, but Sampras slid into net and stroked a severe backhand volley that Roddick couldn't answer. The break held up in the spare 27-minute first set. It ended when an exquisite serve hit the center line -- a second serve, mind you.

There were times when Roddick seemed to be bothered by the injury to his left foot. It was heavily taped for the match, and he spent much of the first set standing around watching Sampras hit shot after smooth shot. Afterward, he said it wasn't a factor.

"No more than the other night," Roddick said. "I played on it the other night and got a win."

Sampras wasn't sure. "Andy wasn't quite at the top of his game," he said. "He seemed a little bit off tonight."

In the third game of the second set, Roddick double-faulted twice to give Sampras the first of two breaks in a 29-minute set. The set ended when Sampras turned a would-be backhand Roddick winner into a sweet forehand volley.

The third set? The match ended on another forehand volley that Roddick couldn't run down.

Roddick, who flashed Sampras a we-are-not-worthy salute at one point in the match, seemed awed by his idol before, during and after the match. He hugged Sampras at net and said later, "He was pretty spectacular tonight when he had to be."

In 1990, Sampras, a callow 19, played the role of the young American phenom. He met John McEnroe, then 31, in the U.S. Open semifinals that year. It wasn't close, with Sampras winning in four sets. He beat Andre Agassi the next day for the first of his record-13 Grand Slam singles titles and, suddenly, he had become Pete Sampras.

Roddick, clearly, did not seize this dazzling moment. Much has been made of the fact that this was the eighth Grand Slam for Roddick, and that Sampras won that 1990 Open in his eighth Grand Slam.

But making the observation that Roddick fell short of the man who is considered one of the best two or three players in history, misses the larger point. Remember, he started this tournament as a teenager.

"It's a learning experience," Roddick said. "I'll try my best to soak it up. You know, I think I'll have my moment here some day. I'm just going to try my best and keep working hard and try to take something away from these losses, as well as the wins."

And what did he learn?

"I watched what I should be doing on big points," Roddick replied. "How to come in and just really, from the first point to the last point, set the tone for the match.

"I can definitely learn from being on the other side of it."

Greg Garber is a senior writer at ESPN.com.