NEW YORK -- When Andre Agassi won the first two sets from Lleyton Hewitt on Saturday, a buzz began to overtake the National Tennis Center. The fans, the media and the United States Tennis Association all found themselves giving in to the delicious notion of one last, completely unlooked for All-American final between Agassi and Pete Sampras.

	Andre Agassi kept Lleyton Hewitt from pushing it to a tiring five sets.

Hell, even Agassi might have let himself revel in the thought; judging by his play in the third set, it certainly seemed so.

The one guy who refused to buy into the concept of such a classic was Hewitt himself. Was it really surprising that the game's best retriever would never, ever stop trying to run Agassi down?

"Lleyton has phenomenal strengths ... a competitive spirit," Agassi said later. "Every time we've played, it just always feels like such few points separate each set."

Hewitt came back to win a third-set tiebreaker and, suddenly, the momentum had shifted abruptly. Agassi, 32, looked like a man who was playing someone 11 years his junior. Hewitt, the No. 1 player in the world and the defending U.S. Open champion, completely unstrung Agassi, winning seven of eight points in the third-set tiebreaker.

Aggasi, who had led that third set 4-1, seemed to be in grave danger of replacing golfer Jean Van DeVelde's picture in the dictionary under the dreaded word: choker.

Summoning all of his considerable powers, Agassi steadied himself. He broke Hewitt's serve. Twice. His forehand cross-court winner sent the crowd at Arthur Ashe Stadium into hysterics. The 6-4, 7-6 (5), 6-7 (1), 6-2 semifinal match was a 2-hour and 59-minute classic. Can Agassi, who played masterfully, possibly top it in Sunday's 4 p.m. final against Sampras?

"You always question if it will ever happen again," Agassi said. "You have a career that you spend playing your best tennis against one of the greats of all time, and you're never guaranteed, even with the best of careers, to have that sort of rivalry and that sort of opposite that brings out the best in you over the years.

"This feels less about what we pull out of each other tomorrow, more about a nice toast to the past."

And so, Sampras and Agassi, the No. 17 and No. 6 seeds, respectively, will meet for the 34th time. Hewitt was so dominant through five matches in defending his title that there was very little talk of a Sampras-Agassi finals matchup, even when they both reached the semifinals.

Hewitt, to his credit, is utterly fearless. He has beaten Gustavo Kuerten on clay in Brazil, he has beaten Sampras on the hard courts here at the U.S. Open. He had beaten Agassi in Australia as a spindly 16-year-old and owned a three-match win streak against Agassi. But they had never met in the crucible of a Grand Slam.

The first game point of the match seemed to confirm Hewitt's superiority. Agassi swung him wide, past the doubles alley, but Hewitt rolled off a running forehand that passed Agassi and caught a piece of the baseline. Hewitt was up 3-0, but Agassi rallied. He broke Hewitt in the fifth game, prevailing in a long rally when Hewitt drilled a forehand into the net and again in the ninth game. Later, Hewitt blamed his loss of the first set on the gusting winds.

Again, Hewitt got off to a good start in the second set and was serving for the set at 5-3 when Agassi crept back into the set. Although Hewitt is a startlingly complete player for his age, the one flaw in his game is that he lacks the big serve. Ultimately, it cost him the first two sets.

A double-fault gave Agassi the break for 4-5 and then he broke again a game later when he throttled another lame second serve and sent it down the line for another winner. Of course, when he was serving for the set, Agassi succumbed to nerves. Two double-faults -- his first of the match -- and an extremely tight forehand into the net sent the second set into a pivotal tie-breaker.

	“	There's no shame for me in losing to Andre Agassi in a semi of a Slam. He's one of the greatest players ever to live. ”
		— Lleyton Hewitt

There is a point, quite literally, in every tennis match that, in retrospect, captures the result. The third point of the second set tie-breaker was that snapshot.

Agassi sliced what looked to be an ill-advised drop shot and Hewitt, naturally, ran it down and answered with his own. Agassi tried to go down the line, but Hewitt lunged to cut it off. After another exchange, Agassi lashed a forehand winner past Hewitt and the Ashe crowd jumped to their feet and roared.

Frame it and hang it in the Louvre.

It was the pivotal point of the match -- and, perhaps, the tournament. It gave Agassi a 2-1 lead in the tie-breaker, which he eventually won 7-5.

The third set lurched toward its logical conclusion, with Agassi running up a 4-1 lead when Hewitt stopped the bleeding. He broke Agassi in the seventh game and the fist-pumping and the screaming commenced. After breaking Agassi again in the 11th game, there was Hewitt serving for another set and wilting. Agassi's superb running forehand, rendered at an impossibly acute angle, forced another tiebreaker.

That was when Hewitt exerted himself, at one point sliding on the green asphalt like he was on the red clay of Roland Garros. Oh, to have 21-year-old ankles.

So here was Agassi's dilemma as he faced the fourth set: Hewitt's age was becoming more of an advantage as the match progressed. Even though he had been judicious in his previous five matches, spending 3 hours and 47 minutes less on the court than Hewitt, if he didn't close the deal, he might not have anything left for a fifth set.

Agassi, down 1-2 and love-30, fought back with four strong points. And then, sure enough, he broke Hewitt in the fifth game of the fourth set, only to very nearly give it back in the sixth. At the moment of critical mass, Hewitt, frankly, shrank from the moment. At break point, his backhand was wide. At deuce, he was long again. And then Agassi hit a spectacular backhand volley winner that nearly took Hewitt into the umpire's chair. He escaped with a 3-all count and broke Hewitt once more for good measure.

"There's no shame for me in losing to Andre Agassi in a semi of a Slam," Hewitt said. "He's one of the greatest players ever to live. I think it's probably more so (surprising) Sampras getting to the final more than Agassi. It hasn't shocked me, but I think it shocked the media and the public more than anything."

If Agassi was shocked, he wasn't saying. Why have their matches -- now nine in Grand Slams alone -- been so arresting?

"We're just the opposite," Agassi said. "We're opposite in everything we do. Out there on the court, we're two styles that are going against each other. It allows for many aspects of the game to kind of reveal themselves. And it's exciting to play against it because every point, something special seems like it can happen."

Greg Garber is a senior writer at ESPN.com.