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By Jeff Agase

DAILY BRUIN STAFF

jagase@media.ucla.edu

Twenty-one minutes into their Round of 16 Mercedes-Benz Cup match at Los Angeles Tennis Center Wednesday, Xavier Malisse and Taylor Dent were playing so well and so abysmally, respectively, that it looked like it might take Malisse even less than 21 more minutes to win the second set and the match.

Sixty-seven minutes later, Malisse was drenched in sweat and satisfied to come away a winner in three sets, 6-1, 4-6, 6-4.

"In the first set I couldn't miss a ball, then in the second set he came back, and in the third set we both played great tennis," Malisse said.

After committing a litany of unforced errors and displaying the kind of body language one might expect from a precocious 20-year-old, Dent stormed back in the second set to break Malisse, hold serve at love, break Malisse once again, then hold once more to go up 4-0.

"I was a little frustrated in the second set," Malisse said. "I wasn't playing badly, but I wasn't making good shot selections. I just kept playing and told myself to have fun out there."

His frustration showing through determined groundstrokes and authoritative volleys, Malisse brought himself back to 4-5 in the second, only to lose the set in a deuce to the resurgent Dent.

But Malisse was able to put Dent away in the third with a pair of beautiful backhand shots, one a stab that passed Dent on his forehand side and the other - the match clincher - a powerful pass on Dent's backhand side.

Malisse advances to the quarterfinals against American Andy Roddick, a winner over wild card Brian Vahaly earlier in the night.