Tennis Roundup : Agassi and Becker Win in U.S. Indoor Championships

Andre Agassi mixed a strong backhand with a dash of theatrics to defeat Veli Paloheimo of Finland, 6-3, 6-2, Wednesday in the $602,500 U.S. Pro Indoor Tennis Championships at Philadelphia.

In other matches, second-seeded Boris Becker of West Germany defeated David Wheaton, 6-1, 6-4; eighth-seeded Dan Goldie spoiled Michael Chang’s 17th birthday with a 2-6, 6-4, 6-2 victory, and fifth-seed Brad Gilbert eliminated No. 12 Paul Annacone, 7-6 , 7-5.

Tossing a ball into the crowd at one juncture and hiking his denim shorts after every point, Agassi had little trouble against the unseeded Paloheimo. Agassi lost three set points on his service in the eighth game before winning in the ninth on the fourth set point.

In the second set, Paloheimo broke Agassi’s service twice but lost his serve four times.

Top-seeded Martina Navratilova breezed to a 6-1, 6-2 victory over Kathy Rinaldi in the $250,000 Virginia Slims of California tournament at the Oakland Coliseum Arena.

“She did not make too many errors, but she did not threaten me; basically, I’m hitting the ball well,” Navratilova said.

In other action, Larisa Savchenko of the Soviet Union defeated Canada’s Jill Hetherington, 6-3, 7-5.

Savchenko, seeded fourth, gained a 3-0 lead in the second set, but then lost five consecutive games. She had to break Hetherington’s serve twice to pull out the set and her second-round victory.

Top-seeded Jakob Hlasek of Switzerland defeated defending champion Yaya Doumbia of Senegal, 6-4, 7-6, in the first round of the $291,000 Lyon Grand Prix tournament at Lyon, France.

John McEnroe, the tournament’s No. 2-seeded player, beat Richard Matuszewski, 7-6, 6-2.