L.A. Tennis Tournament : Agassi Advances--but Offends Even McEnroe

Here’s an upset. Controversy blew in on a cool wind at the Volvo/Los Angeles tennis tournament Friday, and John McEnroe wasn’t involved.

Who was?

Surprise: It was Andre Agassi.

McEnroe, in fact, was put in the awkward position of criticizing someone else for a lack of decorum.

“He’s starting to wear a little thin,” McEnroe said of Agassi, his Davis Cup teammate.

Andre? That flash of hair and denim shorts? Agassi has been tennis’ breath of fresh air, but in Mark Woodforde’s opinion, this time it was bad breath.

Agassi won a match but might have lost some respect when he interrupted Woodforde’s argument with the chair umpire and, according to Woodforde, acted so childishly that it cost Woodforde the match.

Agassi’s response? “Get a personality.”

Agassi defeated Woodforde, 2-6, 7-5, 6-3, at the Los Angeles Tennis Center in a highly charged encounter that actually peaked early in the second set, innocently enough, when a beverage cup fell out of the stands onto the court.

Woodforde had already won the first set and was up a break as Agassi hit a service winner. Woodforde, however, approached umpire Bill Ruhle and said he had been distracted by the falling cup during Agassi’s serve and had stopped play. Woodforde argued for a let and two more serves.

“Stop crying, for crying out loud,” Agassi yelled at Woodforde. Then he defended Ruhle: “He’s trying to do a job, just like you.”

The crowd cheered, which further irritated Woodforde.

There is a fine line between entertaining the crowd and embarrassing an opponent, he said, and Agassi crossed it.

“He just can’t keep upsetting players on the court like that,” Woodforde said.

Agassi had more to say when he got ready to serve again, yelling at Woodforde: “Does (the umpire) say that to you when you miss a shot?”

After that, Woodforde lost control of the match. He later claimed his concentration had been shattered by Agassi’s behavior. Woodforde, a two-time conqueror of McEnroe, won only 6 more games, losing the match and with it his chance to vanquish American tennis stars both past and present.

“I was controling the match until he started acting like a 17-year-old, which he is,” Woodforde said. “He had no reason to yell at me like that. He was losing at the time, so he had to do something to upset my tempo. It worked.

“He’d better watch himself because he can’t get away with that all the time. OK, he’s 17 (actually 18) and he’s having a lot of fun, but I don’t put up with it. He’s going to fall, I think.”

And what did McEnroe think of all this?

There is an unwritten rule, he said, that when one player is arguing with the umpire, the other player stays out of it. Since Agassi got involved, it was as though he were showing up Woodforde.

McEnroe, who plays Agassi today in the semifinals, said: “No one wants to get it rubbed in their face. That’s just not going to get it. Hopefully, he’ll stop embarrassing players.

“He’s 18 years old,” McEnroe said. “He’ll learn.”

Of course, Agassi didn’t exactly see it that way. He said he hadn’t behaved badly, Woodforde had.

“I think the way he acted was very unprofessional,” Agassi said. “I could see if he were getting beat and there’s a bad call, then you can sit there and tell the umpire he’s not doing his job. But when you’re up a set and a break and there’s one little incident and you tell the umpire he’s a jerk or he’s not doing his job, I just think that’s totally uncalled for. I didn’t appreciate that out there.

“I couldn’t imagine anyone getting uptight like that. I think it’s outright bad for tennis.”

So the question of who actually was bad for tennis became the volley of the day. Agassi said he had acted on the spur of the moment.

“Something needed to be said, whether it was embarrassing him or whether it was making him mad or whatever,” Agassi said. “It was just uncalled for.”

After the match, Woodforde shook hands with Agassi but did not congratulate him. He did, however, say something to Agassi.

Said Agassi: “I guess I’m paraphrasing, but it was something like, ‘Don’t talk like that to me again on the court. If you do, I’ll slash . . . ‘ slash you or something. One of those Aussie terms.”

Woodforde responded that the number of players weary of Agassi’s behavior is growing, to which Agassi replied that any poll of players would show he has the support of most of them.

“I think that would tell you where Mark is coming from,” he said.

Tennis Notes

John McEnroe made short work of David Pate, the defending champion, 6-2, 6-3, as McEnroe kept his semifinal date with Andre Agassi. McEnroe said his mental game is coming around. Pate said no part of his game came around in his match with McEnroe. “I pretty much handed him the match,” Pate said. “I didn’t do anything to hurt him. I was embarrassed the way I played. When you play someone as good as he is, you’ve got to stay in from the beginning.” McEnroe and Agassi have played once before. McEnroe won, 6-3, 6-3, at Stratton Mountain, Vt., in 1986 . . . In the bottom half of the draw, No. 4-seeded Mikael Pernfors and No. 2-seeded Kevin Curren, won their quarterfinal matches and will play each other tonight in the second semifinal. Pernfors ousted Jim Pugh, 6-3, 7-5, and Curren ended the upset hopes of 19-year-old wild card Jeff Tarango, 7-5, 6-7, 6-3. Pernfors said he felt weak and dizzy to begin the match, but salt tablets and Gatorade helped.