NEW YORK -- With American men's tennis afflicted with a rash of retirements -- from Pete Sampras to Michael Chang to Thursday night's announcement by Jeff Tarango -- Todd Martin, who is a creaking 33, gets a lot of questions about retirement.

	Todd Martin defeated Martin Verkerk 6-3, 6-4, 6-7 (5), 7-6 (9).

"I'm sort of in a constant statement of reassessment," Martin said. "Whether I do well or don't do well here, it's on my mind."

Should we be surprised if he tees it up at next year's Australian Open?

"Well, I hope you don't waste time on me to worry whether you should be surprised or not," Martin replied. "But ... I wouldn't be surprised."

With all the emphasis on the next generation of American males -- Andy Roddick, Mardy Fish and Robby Ginepri are all rising and 21 or younger -- it's easy to look past Martin. On Thursday, however, he won the 400th ATP match of his 14-year career, a stout 6-3, 6-4, 6-7 (5), 7-6 (9) victory over French Open finalist and No. 16 seed Martin Verkerk.

For perspective, consider that only four other men left in the draw have achieved that total: Andre Agassi, Wayne Ferreira, Yevgeny Kafelnikov and Thomas Enqvist. For further context, Roddick, Fish and Ginepri have combined for 101 wins.

All in all, it was a good day for the U.S. men. Four of the five in the top half of the draw advanced to the third round.

No. 1-seeded Andre Agassi, like Martin a doddering 33, started sluggishly against Sweden's Andreas Vinciguerra before prevailing 7-6 (1), 6-1, 6-4.

Ginepri took out the No. 23-seeded Ferreira 6-2, 6-4, 6-7 (0), 6-2.

Taylor Dent defeated Russia's Nikolay Davydenko 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (7).

The big disappointment was Fish, the No. 24 seed who was unnerved by veteran Karol Kucera in straight sets, 6-4, 7-6 (7), 6-4. Only two weeks ago, Fish ripped through the field in Cincinnati, knocking off names like Mark Philippoussis, Xavier Malisse, Arnaud Clement, David Nalbandian and Rainer Schuettler before losing to Roddick in the final. But in the final Grand Slam of the year, Fish only managed to win one match.

Kucera, who reached the quarterfinals here in 1998, was a difficult draw for Fish. The 29-year-old Slovakian is maddeningly consistent and hits the ball with so little pace that Fish could never generate any momentum.

"Going in, I knew I had to be smart, which I wasn't today," Fish explained.

Did he say he wasn't smart?

"Yeah," Fish said. "I mean, apart from the stupidity on some of the shots that I hit, I mean, I missed volleys that I don't normally miss, I double-faulted more than I normally do. I thought I hit my forehand well, I thought I hit my groundstrokes pretty well. I hit my backhand great, like I always do."

	Taylor Dent is one of the four Americans on his side of the draw to reach the third round.

There was just the small matter of four blown set points in the second set.

"I have to play a bad match every once in a while," he said. "I guess today was one of those days. If you would have come to me, say, four or five weeks ago and said, 'You're going to be 25 in the world after the U.S. Open,' I would have said, 'OK, where do I sign up?' "

Ginepri, however, was quite impressive. He is the unknown quantity in the Roddick-Fish-Ginepri triumvirate. A wrist injury sidelined him early this year, and he lost his first four matches coming back. His first ATP Tour victory in Newport and two quarterfinals in the recent Tennis Masters Series events have increased his confidence.

Already ranked No. 40 at the age of 20, he has fashioned a 23-14 record so far this year. Aside from that third-set hiccup (he lost the tiebreaker at love), Ginepri was solid. His next opponent? Martin in a potential torch-passing match.

While Roddick, Fish and Ginepri have been carving up the summer hard-court circuit, Dent has been chilling out with a wrecked wrist. He suffered damage to his ulnar nerve and hadn't played since Wimbledon. He didn't pick up a racket for three weeks and only began hitting two weeks ago.

Now he's into the third round, where he'll encounter No. 15-seeded Fernando Gonzalez. Dent has never met him in a formal match, but he practiced with him during last year's French Open.

"God," Dent said. "I remember he beat my ass bad. Broke like three rackets. He's going to be ripping the ball."

Greg Garber is a senior writer at ESPN.com.