Rafael Nadal has nothing to say about Andre Agassi-Pete Sampras ‘tipping point’

Rafael Nadal was a courtside witness to some testiness between Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi during an exhibition match played to raise money for Haiti earthquake victims Friday night.

And the friendly Spaniard, who is the defending champion at the BNP Paribas Open tennis tournament, chose to plead poor English-language skills Saturday rather than give up the two former American rivals.

While neither Agassi nor Sampras responded through their representatives about how seriously Sampras might have taken Agassi’s on-court suggestion that Sampras had once been a less-than-generous tipper, Nadal said Saturday, “I didn’t understand nothing.”

Nadal had played doubles with Agassi against Roger Federer and Sampras on Friday night at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden for the Hit For Haiti event. He played tennis for real Saturday, opening his defense of his title with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Germany’s Rainer Schuettler.

Among Saturday’s other winners were fifth-seeded Nikolay Davydenko of Russia, who beat Ernests Gulbis of Latvia, 6-4, 6-4, and a pair of American Davis Cup partners -- 15th-seeded John Isner, who beat Kevin Anderson of South Africa, 6-3, 7-5, and 17th-seeded Sam Querrey, who eliminated Jeremy Chardy of France, 6-3, 6-4.

Second-seeded Novak Djokovic, who led the Serbian team past the U.S., had a night match Saturday against another American, Mardy Fish.

Carlos Moya, the Spaniard who became No. 1 in the world after making it to the final here in 1999, withdrew before his second-round match because of a foot injury. Mario Ancic, on the comeback trail after missing parts of the last two years because of mononucleosis, moved into the third round with a 4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-3 win over 31st-seeded Julien Benneteau of France. For his trouble, Ancic gets Nadal next.

After his win here last year, Nadal had several injury issues that carried over to this season and caused the 23-year-old Spaniard to miss four weeks after the Australian Open.

He said he feels optimism about this season.

“The last four months of last year was tough for me because I didn’t see how to play well because I had [physical] problems,” Nadal said. “But now, no. I started playing the season really well and feeling on the top level. When you get a little injury it seems like you have to start over another time. But I think I am well now and that’s important.”

But Nadal was asked almost as many questions about Friday’s exhibition as he was about his routine second-round win Saturday.

Agassi seemed to make Sampras angry when he suggested Sampras hadn’t been a good tipper, a statement Agassi had also made in his bestselling autobiography. Shortly after Agassi pulled out his empty pockets to apparently emulate Sampras, Sampras served a ball hard at Agassi.

Nadal insisted he sensed no tension between the two American stars. And then Nadal said, “I was very happy I didn’t understand nothing. I didn’t feel any tension. That’s what I can say.”

diane.pucin@latimes.com

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