THE LATEST RAGE : Pressures From Adoring Fans and Unfriendly Foes Take Toll on Young Tennis Sensation Andre Agassi

It was a desperate time in American tennis. There was a void at the top. Jimmy Connors had gotten old, John McEnroe had gotten married and the rest of the world had gotten good.

Then a young talent emerged almost overnight, from Las Vegas, of all places. He smoked the ball from the baseline and generated heat in the stands.

There was hope in the land.

But one morning, this wondrous boy awoke to the sounds of silence. His immense popularity was suddenly threatened. How, Andre Agassi wondered, did this happen?

Agassi recently sat at poolside in Indian Wells, under a March California desert sky that is higher than a South American Davis Cup crowd.

He is shirtless and maned. His hair is of the “that-oughta-wake-up-the-country-club” variety.

Agassi is not unaware of the stir he causes almost everywhere he appears. Hoping no one will notice, bronzed young women in fashionably cut, brightly colored bathing suits squirm in their chaises to catch a glimpse of him. The men next to them notice.

Shutterbugs, autograph seekers and young children are less shy. Agassi says he loves young children. They don’t question his motivations. Later this afternoon, he will spend almost two hours with a group of underprivileged kids. No reporters. No sponsors. No cameras. No appearance fee.

But right now, he has promised time to a reporter, and he is making good on his word. He politely tells everyone who approaches they will have to wait.

Just last year, Agassi was the tennis world’s darling. He won six tournaments, $822,062 and the hearts of people who didn’t know a half-volley from a half-nelson. Then he began alienating those who were watching more closely. That bothered him, and his performance level began dropping.

In five tournaments this year, he has yet to reach a final. Next weekend, he will help carry the United States’ hopes into the San Diego Sports Arena in a quarterfinal Davis Cup match against a strong French team.

In a Davis Cup match last July in Argentina, Agassi embarrassed veteran Martin Jaite by catching (rather than hitting) one of Jaite’s good serves. It gave Jaite a free game late in a one-sided Agassi victory. Jaite was insulted by the gesture.

In February, Agassi rubbed Paraguayan noses in a 5-0 defeat at a Davis Cup match at Ft. Myers, Fla. He made faces at a small group of Paraguayan fans in the stands. And when asked to comment on a bloody coup in Paraguay that coincided with the matches, Agassi airily said he didn’t even know how to spell the word “coup.”

He insists he has never intended malice toward anyone. And France’s Yannick Noah, for one, has said Agassi’s panache is good for the game. But a growing number of people aren’t buying any of it. So it is time, Agassi has decided, to mend fences.

He begins to talk about what it’s like to be 18 years old, a full-time American teen-angel and, in the eyes of many, a part-time public devil. He talks about the burdens and blessings of being much of his country’s immediate tennis future and the world’s No. 4-ranked player.

In four meteoric years, he has gone from No. 618 at the end of 1985 to No. 91 at the end of 1986 to No. 25 at the end of 1987 to No. 3 at the end of 1988. He has attacked his way to the very doorstep of Ivan Lendl, Boris Becker and Mats Wilander. Now, he is under a different sort of attack by a growing media aggregation that has put him under a microscope and found some flaws.

By most accounts, Agassi was a typical tennis brat while growing up in Las Vegas. What little motivation he lacked, his father supplied. Emmanuel (Mike) Agassi boxed for Iran in two separate Olympics more than 35 years after his grandparents fled from their native Armenia in the midst of a bloody political struggle with the Turks.

Mike Agassi later came to America in 1952. He and his wife, Elizabeth, had two daughters, one of whom is married to tennis legend Pancho Gonzalez, and two sons. Andre is the youngest. Mike Agassi eventually moved his family to Las Vegas, where he works as a showroom captain for a large casino on the strip.

Andre Agassi admits his showmanship and desire to entertain on court stem, at least partially, from his neon roots. “Tennis to Andre is like a fight,” says Tom Gorman, the U.S. Davis Cup captain. “Andre’s just grown up that way.”

Not everybody shares Gorman’s opinion.

“Most of it’s a bit of a fake job,” says Mark Woodforde, an Australian left-hander and the world’s 34th-ranked player. “And I don’t like fake people.”

A recent Sports Illustrated story painted an unflattering portrait of Agassi and an even less flattering picture of the people around him. Agassi said he didn’t read the story. But after he heard the worst parts, an Agassi confidante said that Andre told his brother, Phillip, he wanted to quit tennis.

“That’s exactly what I said,” Agassi confirmed later.

The urge passed.

At the moment, Agassi’s scrutinizers are trying to decide whether his problems are simply related to being a teen-aged American in a fishbowl or whether he is a genuinely “bad” guy.

“I think it’s just a period where he’s young,” says Woodforde, one of Agassi’s harshest critics. “But I know that when he has lost recently, the person who has beaten him has been ecstatic. And it’s like a score for everyone else (on tour).”

McEnroe, his Davis Cup teammate, has criticized Agassi for any number of things, including Agassi’s annoying habit of “tanking” sets when he falls too far behind. According to Agassi, McEnroe has never criticized him to his face. Would a heart-to-heart be appropriate?

“What can you do?” Agassi says. “I’m not gonna go up to him and say, ‘Hey John, what do you think about me?’ It (the McEnroe carping) is disappointing. Because if there’s one person in the world that you could find a lot of negative things about, I think most people would agree that it’s John McEnroe.”

Phillip Agassi, himself a former satellite tour tennis player, talks of the “silence” that frosts the air when Andre walks into the players’ locker room at a tournament.

“It’s like they shift the subject,” he says.

“Each one of those (top) players out there thinks he can beat Andre,” says Phillip, who travels with Agassi full time. “And there are ones out there that can.

“But what’s frustrating to them is knowing they will never make the splash in tennis that Andre has made. You can see that when we walk into the locker room. A lot of it is envy. Not a bad type of envy. I think it’s a natural type of jealousy.

“Some of these guys have been out here for four or six years, and they can’t help but think about how all the money they’ve made in their career won’t add up to the money Andre’s made in the two years he’s been on the road.”

Bill Shelton, who works for the International Management Group, but basically serves as Agassi’s full-time agent, said: “We aren’t worried about Andre’s financials right now.” Described by one national tennis writer as “Mr. No, No, No,” Shelton takes even more heat than Phillip for shielding Agassi from the blizzard of commercial offers, endorsement feelers, lucrative exhibition opportunities and interview requests.

“You’ve got to say no,” Shelton said. “Andre has to have time to rekindle his juices.”

It’s just that “No” gets harder to say by the day. And “No” makes it harder to be liked by everybody.

“I think a lot of people see me as somebody who claims to do everything right,” Agassi counters. “All I’ve ever been concerned with as far as my tennis goes and people go is to give them the real me. There’s nothing that I’ve ever wanted to hide. And it seems that some people try to turn it into that I’m trying to hide things.”

The sun continues to beat down. An elderly woman with a German accent approaches for a snapshot. Sweetly, Agassi tells her she will have to wait her turn. She hovers nearby. “I don’t think she realizes how long she’s going to have to wait,” he whispers.

She will have to wait because Agassi is still warming to the subject of all the mistakes he has made. He is the first to admit them. But he is not the only one in his tight traveling entourage who has committed them. To his credit, he will confess to his errors and talk openly about them.

“We’re still learning,” he says.

Phillip said: “Maybe we’re a little fast in making statements when we don’t know what we’re talking about. I’ll be the first to admit that. But when you’re in the middle of a whirlpool, you just reach out for anything that’s out there. You’re a feather in the water, being pulled in all directions.”

Two years ago, the paying customers loved it when Agassi applauded winning shots by his opponents. But then those opponents started pointing out how Agassi only clapped for their winners when he was leading.

Last month at the Newsweek Champions Cup, South African Christo van Rensburg was hammering Agassi in a first set Agassi would eventually lose. On at least two occasions, Agassi applauded when van Rensburg hit shots past him. Agassi later won the match.

The next day, Robert Seguso, who will be a Davis Cup teammate of Agassi’s in San Diego, was defaulted in the final set against Agassi and fined heavily for complaining bitterly and in vivid language to chair umpire Richard Ings about pro-Agassi crowd noise.

But in the quarterfinals, Noah, serving at 40-15 for the first set, forced Agassi into hitting a forehand service return that was apparently wide. The linesman called the ball out, but the chair umpire overruled. Agassi approached the chair, took the microphone and told the crowd of more than 10,000, “Some of you might have seen it good, I saw it wide. It would be tough for me to take a point if it was out.”

In his next tournament, Agassi lost a match in straight sets in the first round to West German Carl-Uwe Steeb, ranked No. 96 in the world.

Agassi’s next competitive match will be against either Noah or Henri Leconte in Davis Cup at San Diego next Friday. Gorman says he has talked to Agassi about his early season losses, and says he is unconcerned.

“For him to repeat in 1989 the highly successful year he had in 1988 would be unrealistic,” Gorman said. “Andre realizes that, too.”

The sad possibility exists that Agassi may play his best tennis when he is at his contentious worst. Against Woodforde in the quarterfinals at Los Angeles last September, he was trailing when Woodforde disputed with the umpire over a request to replay a point.

Agassi ordered a shocked Woodforde to leave the umpire alone. Woodforde was livid, especially when Agassi rallied to win the match.

“There’s sort of an unwritten rule that you don’t do something like that between players,” Woodforde said. “You don’t just jump in.”

In 1985, Agassi’s roommate for three months at the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy in Florida was Jim Courier, currently ranked 46th in the world.

“We’re not best friends by any stretch of the imagination,” Courier said of Agassi. “But we’re friends.”

Apprised of Woodforde’s charges, Courier said: “Personally, I think Andre’s narrowed down his show.”

No one is quite sure what 1989 will bring for Andre Agassi. And, Shelton says, “No one is ever too smart. No one is ever too intelligent. And no one ever knows it all.” Phillip Agassi says, “A calm sea does not make a good sailor.”

But already they are making course adjustments.

Bollettieri (Andre’s coach), Phillip Agassi and Shelton comprise the inner corps of Team Agassi. Last month, they added Pat Etcheberry, a former Chilean javelin thrower, as a full-time strength, conditioning and nutrition coach.

“I fully believe that the physical fitness part is a major criteria for this boy to go up the ladder,” Bollettieri said.

Seeing Agassi play in person is little bit like attending a Beatles concert during the ‘60s. Watching the crowd reacting to him is almost as interesting as watching him react to the ball. Young girls squeal. Older women sigh. And opponents often become invisible.

Agassi’s fans send about 1,500 pieces of mail a week. One recent batch included three separate letters from females that included accompanying pictures of them in the nude.

Agassi is more than a little uncomfortable with the offers.

“Let’s put it this way,” he says. “If I was a bad boy on the court, and my attitude was just a bad boy’s attitude, I really think that would make a difference. I really think that would give them the foot in the door to have things that Playboy would like to write about.”

Phillip Agassi tells the story about the two uninvited French women, claiming to be models, who tried unsuccessfully to get into Andre’s Paris hotel room during the French Open last year.

Phillip answered the knock and didn’t have to be told this wasn’t room service, even though the two were carrying a bottle of champagne and glasses for four.

“All of a sudden you’ve got two girls coming up to the room,” Phillip says, “and, No. 1, you don’t know who they are. No. 2, you don’t know who put them up to it. No. 3, you don’t know what photographer is around the corner.”

For the record, Phillip says, “We hardly ever leave the room. And when we do, usually nobody knows about it.”

The 1988 French Open was where Bollettieri decided that Agassi’s strength and stamina on the court needed improvement. It became obvious when Wilander swept Agassi, 6-0, in the fifth set of the semifinals. That’s when Bollettieri began recruiting trainer Etcheberry. In turn, Etcheberry began reading everything he could find about Agassi and studying his habits.

“I had to figure out what would motivate him,” said Etcheberry, who found out Agassi already was motivated. But he was not as strong or as flexible as he should be, which is why Bollettieri says fans should wait for the 1990s before expecting Agassi to become No. 1.

“We have to pull back just a tiny bit,” Bollettieri said. “Slow down. Keep the element of fun.”

It’s a sensitive issue for Bollettieri. His two most recent Davis Cup proteges--Jimmy Arias and Aaron Krickstein--did not have full-time trainers. Nor did they have very much fun when their careers turned on them.

Arias, 24, turned professional at 15 and finished 1980 ranked No. 272 in the world. He jumped to 81 in 1981, 20 in 1982 and 6 in 1983. Then he began sliding--14 in 1984, 21 in 1985, 48 in 1987 and 106 last year. He has rallied back to No. 69 on the latest computer sheets.

Krickstein, 21, turned professional at 16 and finished that year ranked 94th in the world. One year later, he had risen to No. 12. Then he, too, began slipping--29 in 1985, 26 in 1986 and all the way to 61 in 1987.

Bollettieri took much of the blame.

Krickstein’s injuries (wrist problems in 1985 and a stress fracture in his foot in 1987) are well-documented. And by the end of 1988, he had climbed back to No. 15 in the world. He is currently No. 17.

Etcheberry’s job will be to see to it that Agassi doesn’t ever have to climb back into anything more taxing than a limo.

Agassi’s best boyhood friend, Perry Rogers, is a sophomore at Georgetown. It was Rogers who Agassi called long distance for an honest opinion after the Jaite incident in Argentina.

“What did I do wrong?” Agassi asked Rogers after the match.

Rogers says he told him, “You just didn’t think it out. You have to put yourself in the position of the spectator. There’s a line between cute and obnoxious. And if you cross it, you can’t go back.”

Rogers says Agassi is harder on himself than anyone he has ever known.

The first time Agassi knew he wanted to be a professional tennis player was on his fourth birthday, when his father arranged for him to “have a hit” with Jimmy Connors for five minutes. Connors did it as a favor to Mike Agassi, who had strung several of his racquets between matches at Alan King’s tennis tournament in Las Vegas.

“I remember looking at him on the other side of the net and saying, ‘Someday, that’s what I want to be,’ ” Agassi said. “Not so much Jimmy Connors. But more or less a top pro. Because I knew how he could affect me. And there was something inside me that was like ‘Wow.’ It was that feeling of being able to affect people.

“My ultimate goal is being somebody who can affect people. If I never reached No. 1, I wouldn’t feel like I was missing anything. I just know that I’ve never had a better feeling than when I’ve done something and it affects people in a positive way.”

So what words does he have for the next Andre Agassi, McEnroe or Connors--the American boy out there somewhere, as yet unidentified, who will one day find himself growing older fast under the same microscope?

“I’d say, ‘Always remember in life, it’s important to do things because you feel it’s right,’ ” Agassi said. “And,’Don’t be concerned about ridicule.’ That’s what I’ve learned. I can’t let those things affect me.”