Tennis Roundup : Agassi Has No Trouble With Annacone in Final

Second-seeded Andre Agassi won his fifth Nabisco Grand Prix singles title of the year Sunday at the tournament where he began his professional career two years ago.

Using a powerful forehand passing shot and a backhand lob, Agassi, 18, of Las Vegas defeated 13th-seeded Paul Annacone, 6-2, 6-4, in the Volvo International tennis tournament at Stratton Mountain, Vt.

“I feel this was the best I played all week,” said Agassi, who has also won Grand Prix titles this year in Memphis, Tenn; Charleston, S.C.; New York; and Stuttgart, West Germany. He dedicated this win to his father.

Annacone, of Knoxville, Tenn., said he had problems with his serve and misjudgment of Agassi’s return. Annacone double-faulted four times in the first three games, the last time at break point.

Annacone was broken in the third game of the first set and again in the fifth when Agassi, who is ranked fifth in the world, blasted a forehand passing shot.

Agassi played his first professional tournament at Stratton two years ago. At 16, he entered as a qualifier and advanced to the quarterfinals before losing to John McEnroe.

Last year he made it to the semifinals before being ousted by Ivan Lendl.

Steffi Graf, who said she was hampered by a finger injury, needed only 86 minutes to defeat Bulgaria’s Katerina Maleeva, 6-4, 6-2, in the final of a tournament at Hamburg, West Germany.

It was the seventh tournament victory of the year for Graf, who was bitten on the middle finger of her right hand by her dog Max after she returned home to West Germany for a brief vacation after winning the Wimbledon title.

Emilio Sanchez of Spain defeated top-seeded Guillermo Perez-Roldan of Argentina, 6-3, 6-1, 3-6, 6-3, to capture the Grand Prix tournament at Hilversum, Netherlands.

In a 2-hour 43-minute match, the second-seeded Sanchez won three games at love in the fourth set against a tiring Perez-Roldan.

Austria’s Thomas Muster won his second Grand Prix title in a month, defeating Haiti’s Ronald Agenor, 6-3, 6-3, in the final of the Bordeaux Passing Shot tournament at Bordeaux, France.

Muster made an early break stand up in the first set. But, the Austrian rallied to win four consecutive games to take control in the second set.