L.A. Tennis Tournament : Agassi Warms Up to Young Fans With Victory

As soon as his tennis shoes touched the court Tuesday night, the cheers told the story: The Andre had landed.

Andre Agassi, 18 years old and No. 4 in the world, walked onto the Grandstand court at the Los Angeles Tennis Center at UCLA, and a small but vocal group of young women fans yelled with delight. When Agassi took off his warmups, they got downright giddy.

What in the world would happen when he actually hit a ball? To some of his devoted fans, the score was 18-love before Agassi’s match against Christian Saceanu even started.

Agassi said there was one explanation for the reception.

“My shorts,” he said.

Warming up, Agassi hit a ball between his legs, and once the match began, he needed only 57 minutes of more conventional shotmaking to win his first-round match.

Agassi, seeded first in the Volvo/Los Angeles tournament, overpowered Saceanu, 6-2, 6-2, before a crowd of 7,357.

“Physically I’m set, but mentally I need a little time off,” he said. “I’m geared to play this tournament, though.

“There are a lot more expectations of me, but justifiably so. Not only to entertain, but to win. If I stop winning, I could be a comedian out there and they wouldn’t want to see me.”

For another teen-ager, 16-year-old Michael Chang, the times they are achangin’. It isn’t like it used to be, when he could show up for a match as the kid with the shock of short black hair and just sock a bunch of two-fisted backhands.

Chang can’t surprise anybody anymore, so he in turn wasn’t surprised that he was forced to pull out a difficult 7-6, 6-4 victory Tuesday night over Marcel Freeman in a first-round match. It’s becoming tougher all the time out there, Chang said.

“It’s getting that way,” he said. “Sometimes I go out there with a little more nerves than I usually do. I’m not the underdog anymore.”

That role belonged to Freeman, who was a qualifier. Because he is ranked No. 242 and Chang No. 41, it was Freeman who was the unknown. Chang said he knew little about him.

“I know he hit with Carling Bassett (Seguso) at Wimbledon,” Chang said.

Freeman, 28, hung tough in the first set. Chang, who seldom strayed from the baseline, had two chances to win without going to a tiebreaker, but Freeman didn’t allow him.

Chang led, 4-3, and had 3 break points, but Freeman fought back and held his serve. Chang led again, 6-5 and 40-0, and once again Freeman held.

“I was sort of counting how many set points I was losing,” Chang said. “I was just trying to keep calm.”

The tiebreaker wasn’t any easier for Chang, who took a 5-2 lead before Freeman got to 5-5 en route to finally losing. Chang, who didn’t break Freeman’s serve in the first set, did it twice in the second set.

His serve was fast, but the pace was too slow for Kevin Curren, who outwaited Todd Nelson in a slowdown and won, 5-7, 6-4, 6-4, Tuesday afternoon.

Curren, the No. 2-seeded player behind Agassi, advanced to the second round with his 2-hour 5-minute victory over Nelson.

Curren blamed Nelson for deliberately slowing the pace.

“I felt like he was stalling a lot,” Curren said. “It was gamesmanship when he did that. I mean everybody was ready . . . the ballboys, the umpire. It was very disturbing.”

In another first-round match, Mikael Pernfors fought off 2 match points to beat Tim Wilkison in a third-set tiebreaker, 3-6, 6-3, 7-6.

Pernfors, seeded No. 4, was playing his fourth match since having surgery on his left knee in June.

In other matches, Christo van Rensburg defeated Jim Grabb, 6-2, 6-2; fifth-seeded David Pate defeated Peter Lundgren, 6-3, 6-2; Johan Kriek defeated Patrick Kuhnen, 6-7, 6-0, 6-0, and Jorge Lozano defeated Michael Robertson, 7-6, 6-4.

Tennis Notes

Put this in the If You Can’t Beat ‘Em, Join ‘Em Dept.: John McEnroe, who had 2 losses to Mark Woodforde in a month, teamed up with Woodforde in a doubles victory over Kevin Curren and David Pate, 3-6, 6-2, 6-3. McEnroe and Woodforde are an unseeded wild-card entry while Curren and Pate were not only seeded third, they were also the defending champions. . . . No. 3 McEnroe becomes the last seeded player to play his first-round singles match when he meets Paul Annacone at 7:30 tonight on the Stadium Court. McEnroe’s late schedule puzzled Pate, who said: “I thought there were only Tuesday starts, but McEnroe gets a Wednesday start. I don’t want to say any more or I’ll get into trouble.”