ROME -- Even after 13 years and seven Grand Slam titles, Andre Agassi remembers squandering a championship point at the Italian Open.

Agassi moved closer to winning the elusive championship Thursday, beating Agustin Calleri 7-6 (4), 7-5 to advance to the quarterfinals.

"It would mean a lot to win here," Agassi said. "Just to be here in the thick of it, competing and having the chance to win is all I can ask for."

In the 1989 final, the then 19-year-old Agassi lost in five sets to Argentina's Alberto Mancini.

"I ended up just hitting a forehand rally shot just straight into the net," Agassi said. "But that was 13 years ago, so I'm trying to forget."

Agassi's match against Calleri had the makings of a clay-court classic. The players slugged away from the baseline for more than two hours, approaching the net only to run down an occasional drop shot. There were even a few calls overturned when the chair umpire ventured down to inspect the ball marks left on the red clay.

"I thought it was a very high-quality match," said Agassi said. "It boiled down to a just a few points each set. It was a good test for me."

Calleri used a powerful backhand to keep the 32-year-old scrambling, but Agassi capitalized on a double fault by his opponent in the 11th game of the second set and served out the match.

Agassi will next play Albert Costa, a 7-6 (5), 6-3 winner over Albert Montanes.

Andy Roddick defeated Wayne Ferreira 3-6, 6-4, 6-2. James Blake defeated Fernando Gonzalez 4-6, 6-3, 6-3.

In other results, Seventh-seeded Tommy Haas and 14th-seeded Jiri Novak won in straight sets to reach the quarterfinals.

Haas beat 10th-seeded Sebastien Grosjean 6-3, 6-4, snapping a five-match losing streak against the Frenchman.

"It's good to finally have beaten him," Haas said. "But he looked like he was a little injured in the hip today and he made a few more errors than usual."

Haas broke Grosjean's serve twice in the opening set and hit an overhead passing shot from behind the baseline for a break to take a 5-4 lead in the second set.

The 24-year-old Haas improved to 20-9 this year.

Novak rallied from 1-4 in the opening set to defeat Croatia's Ivan Ljubicic 6-4, 6-1.

Also advancing to the quarterfinals were Carlos Moya, a 6-2, 6-1 winner over Thomas Enqvist, and Tommy Robredo, who beat Xavier Malisse 6-2, 6-4.

The tournament's top four seeds, No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt and No. 2 Gustavo Kuerten, defending champion Juan Carlos Ferrero and No. 4 Yevgeny Kafelnikov lost Wednesday.