Tennis Roundup : Mancini Stops Agassi in Five Sets

Alberto Mancini of Argentina staved off a match point in the fourth set and then routed second-seeded Andre Agassi in the fifth set to win the Italian Open men’s tennis championships Sunday at Rome.

Mancini, behind relentless topspin groundstrokes, wore down Agassi, 6-3, 4-6, 2-6, 7-6 (7-2), 6-1, in 3 hours 13 minutes on the red clay at the Foro Italico.

On match point, Agassi stood flatfooted and didn’t bother to chase Mancini’s forehand cross-court return of serve.

However, Agassi said it wasn’t a matter of his physical conditioning.

“There’s a funny thing about sports; it’s something called momentum,” he said. “There’s not much you can do about it. I had him down but let him go. I don’t think it’s so much what I did but how well he played.”

In the fourth set, Agassi served for the match at 5-4 and went up 40-30. On match point, the 11th-seeded Mancini hit a sharp but returnable forehand that Agassi slapped into the net. After another Agassi forehand error, the Argentine evened the set, 5-5, by firing a backhand passing shot down the line.

Agassi, ranked fifth in the world but without a tournament victory in 10 months, said he still feels good about his chances at the French Open in Paris.

“I think today was my worst match of the week, but I feel fine the way I’m playing now,” he said. “The fact that I could stay in the match and fight a little bit today gives me some consolation.”

Steffi Graf of West Germany, suffering from a cold since Tuesday, showed no signs of weakness in a 6-3, 6-1 victory over Argentina’s Gabriela Sabatini in the final of the German Open women’s tournament in Berlin.

“It was satisfying to win especially because I wasn’t 100% fit,” Graf said. “I could hardly sleep. But then in the morning I pulled myself together, and when I was playing the match I didn’t think about it.”

Despite a strong breeze, Graf served superbly, giving up only six points on her serve in the 41-minute first set. She won in 78 minutes.

Sabatini was not as confident in her serve as Graf, primarily because each time she missed her first serve Graf struck a powerful winner off her second serve.

“She played well; it was a good match for her,” Sabatini said. “But I let her play like that. Mentally I wasn’t in the match. Maybe I need a little rest.”