Agassi Wins Battle of Tennis Teens

They knew each other and even played some tennis back in the days when one was a wild and crazy guy and the other was so little he . . . well, he was very little.

Michael Chang recalled one particular match against Andre Agassi in a junior tournament at Pasadena. He was playing well and had a point to win the first set.

“I hit a forehand volley and he called it out,” Chang said. “I thought it was in. How old were we?

“I know I was very young.”

They still are. Chang is 16. Agassi is 18 and No. 4 in the world.

Filed next to that quirky match in Chang’s head will be another memorable Agassi-Chang confrontation. This one came Tuesday night at the U.S. Open on the Stadium Court in front of a capacity crowd.

Agassi, considered the future of American men’s tennis, put Chang’s future in this tournament on hold, for this year at least, with a 7-5, 6-3, 6-2 fourth-round victory at the National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadow.

The two teen-agers took over this tournament for the day and made it their own. Two-time U.S. Open champion Tracy Austin was playing mixed doubles on the Grandstand Court in front of more empty seats than fans during the Agassi-Chang match.

This country may love nostalgia but the future was in hot demand on Tuesday night.

“Coming out here, I knew what to expect,” said Agassi, who will meet 36-year-old Jimmy Connors in the quarterfinals. “I knew it boiled down to one thing: Who’s going to want to hit more tennis balls?”

Chang may have been willing to hit a lot of tennis balls but his body was weary after enduring back-to-back five set matches to reach the fourth round. The Placentia resident knocked off No. 13 Jonas B. Svensson and rallied from a two-set deficit against American Tim Wilkison in an emotional contest Monday.

“I had nothing to lose against Andre,” said Chang, who lost to Agassi in their other pro meeting last spring. “I expected to go out there and get killed, so there was no reason to be nervous. There was so much publicity after I beat Wilkison about this match, being a night match and everything, all the pressure is on him. He’s facing all the expectations.”

So, is Chang, of course, to a much lesser degree. He thinks his progress on the men’s tour has been hastened by Agassi’s arrival in the top five. There are two American hopes now instead of one.

Or, maybe there’s more. Brentwood’s Derrick Rostagno, hardly old at 22, put his name into the hopper with a 6-2, 3-6, 6-1, 6-3 victory over Ronald Agenor of Haiti in another fourth-round match. In the quarterfinals, Rostagno will next meet No. 1 Ivan Lendl, a 6-4, 5-7, 6-2, 6-4 winner over Jakob Hlasek.

With all the talk about an Aussie comeback during Week One, is it time for the great American Comeback the second week?

“They are all doing really well,” said Rostagno, Tuesday’s spokesman. “But I’m not sure it’s a comeback. Perhaps it’s a comeback because we haven’t done so well in the past. We’re all young, though. There are a lot of great American young tennis players. I’m 22 and I’m one of the older ones except for Connors.”

What about Connors as in Jimmy, not Brett. Oh, is he still whacking forehands and backhands?

Connors did that and everything else very well in his 6-1, 6-2, 6-0 fourth-round victory over Mexico’s Jorge Lozano. He has dropped just one set at the U.S. Open, to Gilad Bloom in the second round. Everyone should play so well at 36.

Even if 16-year-old Michael Chang can’t figure him out.

“I don’t know how Jimmy feels,” Chang said about the Agassi-Connors quarterfinal matchup. “Jimmy is weird. The guy is what? Thirty-six years old? His feet are killing him, and he’s still out here in the U.S. Open and playing in the quarterfinals.

“I mean, that’s so uncommon.”

You might say that about a 16-year-old playing an 18-year-old in the fourth round of the U.S. Open men’s singles draw. Great occasions often call for grand gestures, so Chang donned a pair of funky sneakers, shoes that another Michael, Jackson, would have been proud to wear.

“I thought maybe if I get to play Andre in the round of 16, I’d wear them,” Chang said. “It sort of fits in with his hair. They go together.”

Agassi, often the showmen like the ones found in his hometown of Las Vegas, cooled the act against Chang and wasn’t playing to the crowd. It turned out there were, surprise, rooting for Chang. The only thing Agassi did unusual was toss a pair of clean, but frayed denim shorts in the the crowd after the victory.

“I couldn’t wear them anymore,” Agassi said. “Somebody might want to put them on their wall.”

Yeah, with the inscription, Chang-Agassi tour ‘88, Flushing Meadow.

This stop unfolded with a good first set and two so-so ones after that. Chang felt Agassi was nervous in the first set. Agassi said he was just anxious. Either way, Agassi wasn’t hitting his forehand as well--which is like saying Roger Clemens isn’t throwing as hard--until the second and third sets.

After exchanging early service breaks, Chang had one point in the 12th game to push the first set to a tiebreaker. He missed the chance by hitting a backhand approach shot in the net. Two points later, Agassi won the first set when Chang knocked a forehand wide.

“I just wanted him to hit a lot of balls,” Agassi said. “I wanted him to make a few mistakes.”

With the next Big Match of the 1988 U.S. Open, Agassi knows he is at a severe disadvantage in the experience department.

But the kid has confidence of a player on a hot streak--which he is on--an incredible forehand, a tough serve and a pretty substantial ego.

Listen to him talk about Connors.

“You sit back and think about it,” Agassi said. “The new versus the used type of thing.”

He’s not the only cocky kid on the block.

“If I keep improving, there’s no telling how good I can get,” Chang said.

They’re both good. And they’re getting better so fast it’s almost scary. But as Chang said, and as their words showed after this big match, they are both still very young.