In short - play more on clay.

The 33-year-old Agassi and journeyman Vince Spadea were the only Stars and Stripes to make it into the last 32 as young guns Andy Roddick, James Blake, Mardy Fish and Taylor Dent all failed to come to terms with the red dirt.

And Spadea crashed out leaving Agassi, an impressive straight sets winner over Xavier Malisse of Belgium, as the last hope for a US win.

Asked what had gone wrong, Agassi had no doubts.

"Well, I've always said when I see these guys that don't play as well on clay, if they can learn to play better on clay, it's going to make their hard court games even better," he said.

"Just like we've seen in the past, when you take some Spanish guys that came along and actually started getting good results on the hard courts, indoors.

"All of a sudden they became much more dangerous clay-courters because they learned how to step up and finish points.

"I believe learning to play the entire sort of gamut of surfaces allows your game to evolve in the big picture, makes you a better player."

The best possible example of persistence paying off on clay is Agassi himself.

Despite two losing Paris finals early in his career it took him until 1999 on his 11th attempt to finally win the one Grand Slam title missing from his trophy case.

Since then he has come back every year and has made the quarterfinals on the last two occasions.

His win in 1999 from two sets down against Andrei Medvedev of the Ukraine, was the most emotional of his career and the one that sparked off his revival from a prolonged slump in form and motivation.

The defeat of Malisse Friday was his 50th win at Roland Garros in 15 appearances tieing Italian Nicola Pietrangeli for third place behind Argentine legend Guillermo Vilas.

But it remains to be seen if the Roddicks and Blakes breaking through on the American scene can match his intensity and determination.