Tennis : Agassi Is Causing a Racket Over Choice

Andre Agassi, who departed the Lipton International Players Championships after losing in the first round to Carl-Uwe Steeb, spent last week in Bradenton, Fla., at Nick Bollettieri’s tennis camp.

Agassi practiced with brother Phil and was trying to get used to a Donnay racket frame.

Donnay is paying Agassi $6 million over five years to use its racket, which Agassi junked after losing to Tim Mayotte two months ago in the semifinals of the U.S. Pro Indoor Championships at Philadelphia.

Agassi caused a stir at the recent Indian Wells tournament when he played with a racket that was obviously a Prince, even though his agent, Bill Shelton, said he was playing with “a prototype Donnay.” Agassi would not comment.

However, Dickie Dillon, Donnay’s U.S. representative, said Agassi has not yet played a tournament with one of his company’s rackets, despite the remarks (or non-remarks) from Agassi’s camp.

Said Dillon: “A little bit of immaturity on their part.”

It is Donnay’s hope that Agassi will play with one of their rackets in the Davis Cup, but Dillon said that if Agassi is not comfortable with the frame then, there will be no pressure to make a timetable.

“If he can’t make the change (for the Davis Cup), no big deal,” Dillon said.

Agassi, whose match record this year--not counting the Davis Cup--is 6-5, has not beaten anyone ranked higher than No. 30 Dan Goldie.

Agassi began the year as No. 3, but Boris Becker has jumped ahead of him. With his mediocre record this year, Agassi’s lead over No. 5 Stefan Edberg is only three computer points.

When he lost to Mayotte, Agassi complained that he could not serve with the Donnay racket. But Dillon believes there is another reason.

“He has a mental problem,” Dillon said. “I don’t think this is a racket problem.

“What happened is that he was such a hot player last year, played so well, got a high ranking and won all his Davis Cup matches, that there has been big pressure put on him.

“I think he is in a little bit of a cloud right now.”

Henri Leconte, the swashbuckling left-handed French star, is working out twice a day in Key Biscayne, Fla., although he could not play in the International Players Championships because of a bad back.

Leconte said he has lost 17 pounds since his surprising first-round loss at the Australian Open and rededicated himself to tennis.

Leconte said he is serious about training and practicing for the first time in a long while. As he spoke of his dedication, Leconte stripped off his tennis clothes and put on brightly colored surfer’s shorts and T-shirt.

“There are two parts to me now,” he said over his shoulder as he walked toward the ocean. “One is working hard. The other is beach boy.”

Double trouble: France has not lost a Davis Cup doubles match since 1984.

That is a string of 11 consecutive victories for the French, who will almost certainly have to keep the streak intact if they are going to defeat the United States in the Davis Cup next weekend.

Some combination of Guy Forget (eight matches in the streak), Leconte (six) and Yannick Noah (five) is the usual French doubles team. Tarik Benhabiles, Thierry Tulasne and Eric Winogradsky played and won one match each in the streak that began after Czechoslovakia’s Pavel Slovil and Tomas Smid defeated Leconte and Pascal Portes in five sets in 1984.

Noah, Leconte, Forget and Winogradsky compose the French team that plays the United States.

Although his career could hardly be characterized as roller coaster, Boris Becker had this to say about keeping one’s feet on the ground:

“You go through different stages in your career. Sometimes you’re up. Sometimes you’re down. If you feel down, you have to find a way back to be up. If you are up, you have to make sure that you stay up as long as possible.”

Got that?

Since the Virginia Slims tour will go up in smoke in 1990, here is the new name for the women’s professional tennis tour:

The Post Cereals-Cafe HAG World Tour.

What’s in a name? Well, if this sounds unwieldly, jokes are already beginning about the women’s tour being referred to as the Hag Tour.

“We’ve heard them,” said a spokesperson for Philip Morris , the parent company of Post Cereals and Cafe HAG.

In North America, the tour will be the Post Cereals Tour and in Europe, Asia and Australia, it will be the Cafe HAG Tour.