He loves the court and the conditions, he's happy with his life and he believes he's playing tennis better than he ever has.

For Andre Agassi, a fourth Australian Open title seems a mere formality.

The 32-year-old world No.2 won the right to play off for his eighth grand slam championship with a ridiculously easy win over unseeded South African Wayne Ferreira.

Apart from a small glitch in the opening game when he offered Ferreira a break point, Agassi's control of the match was total.

He took only 1hr 28m to beat one of the game's most durable players 6-2 6-2 6-3 and set up Sunday's match against either 31st seed Rainer Schuettler of Germany or ninth-seeded American Andy Roddick.

In some ways, Ferreira, 31, would have welcomed the opportunity to play tonight's semi-final against someone older than himself.

If only it had been someone other than Agassi.

This was the 11th time the pair had met - and the 11th time Ferreira had lost.

He's only ever taken one set off Agassi and there was virtually no chance of improving on that unfortunate statistic tonight.

But Agassi, 32, offered Ferreira some dubious consolation.

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