L.A. Tennis Tournament : Agassi Slowed, but Not Stopped, in 3 Sets

The Andre Agassi bandwagon rolled on Thursday night, but not before it hit a little speed bump in the form of a serve-and-volley doubles specialist from Guadalajara.

Jorge Lozano, the 1980 Mexican National champion and a three-time All-American at USC, put up a temporary roadblock in Agassi’s path before he finally fell by the wayside.

For Lozano, it was a near-miss.

“I had a chance,” he said.

Agassi was forced to three sets before he defeated Lozano, 6-4, 5-7, 6-2, Thursday night in the Volvo/Los Angeles tournament at the Los Angeles Tennis Center.

As far as Agassi was concerned, it was kind of a blah night.

“The match wasn’t very entertaining,” he said. “That tended to discourage me from having motivation all the way through. It just wasn’t happening tonight.”

However, that’s show biz. The show must go on. Although Agassi found no thrill in the type of points he played with Lozano, Agassi pulled himself togetherin spite of himself.

He was cold, his forehand wasn’t sandblasting chips of paint off the court and there were troubled thoughts beneath his shaggy, bleached blond hair.

“I knew if I could get my head together, I’d be in control,” Agassi said.

He breezed through the first set and was serving for the match at 5-4 in the second set when Lozano, noted for his doubles play with Todd Witsken, became the player in control.

Lozano broke Agassi, then held serve to take a 6-5 lead. Agassi needed to hold his own serve to force a tiebreaker. He didn’t. In fact, Agassi double-faulted on set point.

Oddly enough, Agassi said it was all part of his plan.

“I didn’t want a tiebreaker, I wanted a third set,” he said.

Come again?

“I don’t know why,” Agassi said. “I needed a third set to test myself a little bit.”

Agassi’s forehand is one of the most feared in tennis, but Lozano gave it his backhand. Yet the third set belonged to Agassi and Lozano thought he knew why.

“I think he started to get psyched up,” Lozano said.

Could Lozano pull it off? Not quite.

Comparing psyches, none may be as interesting as John McEnroe’s. On his way toward a possible semifinal match against Agassi, McEnroe defeated Michael Chang of Placentia, 6-2, 6-4.

Since youth must be served, McEnroe kept Chang, 16, back on his heels and gained a difficult victory. Chang held five break points in the first set but didn’t convert any of them. At the same time, when McEnroe got his first break-point opportunity, he put Chang away.

“I had my chances,” Chang said.

McEnroe made the most of his. He closed out the match the hard way, breaking Chang right after Chang had broken his serve when McEnroe could have won it at the service line.

“That 5-3 game is something I would like to eliminate,” McEnroe said.

In the meantime, McEnroe has a casual interest in how the Agassi bandwagon is moving along. Agassi, McEnroe said, is good to have around.

“We need personalities,” McEnroe said. “That’s good for the game. That’s a plus.

“Anytime you have anybody who consistently wins, people are going to want to see (him),” he said. “But next year will be the telling when he is expected to win. The next couple of years are going to be more difficult for him. Players are going to be more prepared. He can’t take a step backwards.

“It’s the type of situation where it’s fun to watch him, but he’s not as funny as people make him out to be,” McEnroe said. “He’s a little mild.

“It’s like me. I wasn’t as bad as I was projected.”

Clearly, Agassi was conducting show business as usual early. He talked a lot and hit a ball into the stands toward a group of young women who yelled, “Go Andre.”

When a siren from an emergency vehicle sounded during the match, Agassi said: “There’s my ride.”

Once, when Lozano passed him just inside the line, Agassi turned to the first row of stands where Johnny Carson and Merv Griffin were sitting and asked if the shot was good.

It wasn’t, but there were just enough to keep the bandwagon rolling all the same.

Tennis Notes

Mikael Pernfors struggled once again but managed to overcome Marty Davis, 6-4, 5-7, 6-4, and advance to a quarterfinal match against Jim Pugh. Pernfors said he not only had trouble adjusting to the speed of the courts, but also with his concentration. “I played well when I really needed to,” Pernfors said. Pernfors, the No. 4-seeded player, won his first-round match against Tim Wilkison in a third-set tiebreaker. . . . In another match, No.8-seeded Mark Woodforde outlasted Johan Kriek, 7-5, 6-2. . . . John McEnroe was unhappy about his starting time against Michael Chang. They played the third match on the Stadium Court and began at 4 p.m. when shadows were just beginning to move across the court. “The (lighting) conditions were ridiculous,” McEnroe said.