Agassi Is the U.S. Downfall in Loss to West Germany

When Andre Agassi skipped the Wimbledon tennis tournament again this year, an enterprising Britisher made a killing by selling “Where’s Andre?” T-shirts.

That same question was applicable Sunday. And the answer was simple: Agassi went south in West Germany.

The young and unpredictable U.S. Davis Cup player looked even younger and more unpredictable in a 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-2 loss to Carl-Uwe Steeb. The match gave the West Germans their third and deciding point in the Davis Cup best-of-five semifinal competition, which they ended up winning, 3-2.

They did it without having to call in their big gun, Boris Becker, Sunday. Becker was scheduled to play Brad Gilbert in the second match of the day, the match expected to be the decider.

But Agassi went down to defeat unceremoniously, making Gilbert’s victory over Patrick Kuhnen meaningless and raising questions of just how much of the U.S. Davis Cup program Agassi took down with him.

Most likely, with Rick Leach and Jim Pugh waiting in the wings, the doubles team of Ken Flach and Robert Seguso is out. Their best chance to continue was a U.S. team victory Sunday, which would have meant a spot in the Davis Cup finals. Team captain Tom Gorman was unlikely to break up a successful team, even if Flach and Seguso lost for the first time in 11 Davis Cup doubles matches Saturday.

Also, how long John McEnroe, at 30, will remain fit, sharp and motivated for the long hauls that Davis Cup competition demands is a key question. The man who holds nearly every U.S. record for participation and winning in the Davis Cup would certainly be eager for another final, but maybe less so for a restart next year.

And then there is the question of Gorman, the personable captain who has, in his four years in that capacity, failed to get the United States into the finals. The U.S. Tennis Assn. makes the call on the captain, and for a country and a tennis program that has won the Davis Cup more than any other (28) and hasn’t had a title since 1982, patience could be wearing thin.

“Of course, I want to be back,” Gorman said afterward.

Agassi’s demise Sunday couldn’t have helped anybody. Nor could it have been timed more strangely.

The 19-year-old from Las Vegas has been controversial almost since he emerged onto the international tennis scene. He has been criticized for being cocky, arrogant and insensitive--sometimes all in the same sentence. Many other players, as pointed out by Steeb in the post-match press conference, don’t like him because he showboats on the court, makes them look bad and then laughs at them.

More recently, his game and his ranking have begun to slip ever so slightly.

So it was with great interest that many watched his opening match and demeanor against Becker Friday night and Saturday. Even though Agassi lost in five sets, they were five of the most stirring sets played. And they were made even better when Agassi merely played--no cutesy stuff, no little games with linespeople or the crowd, no sulking when things went badly.

When it was over, Agassi leaped over the net, hugged Becker, then marched to the interview room to face reporters and give credit to Becker.

“He got lots of respect back here,” Steeb said. “He acted like a real sportsman after he lost that match.”

Suddenly, this appeared to be the new and improved Andre Agassi. He skipped Wimbledon to get ready for this, he said. And with McEnroe out, he had taken on his new role of team leader with enthusiasm. He had a new trainer, a man from Kentucky named Pat Etcheberry, who was helping him with his diet and his conditioning. No more sprees of hamburgers, milkshakes and fries.

“I can go the distance now,” Agassi told reporters.

Sunday, he barely went four sets. Steeb, ranked 23rd in the world to Agassi’s sixth, went through him in 28 minutes in the fourth set. By the time Agassi had his third point in the set, Steeb led, 5-0. One of those three points came on an ace, another on a double-fault by Steeb. Even fighting back for two games, Agassi won only 13 points in the set.

“In the locker room during the break (after the third set),” Agassi said, “I was pacing around, back and forth and back and forth, saying I was right there. A couple of more points in the third set and it would have been me, up two sets to one.”

Indeed, at a set apiece, Agassi started the third set fast, serving and volleying and breaking Steeb for a 2-0 lead. In the third game, he served and volleyed his way to a 40-love lead before disintegrating, as Steeb started to take advantage of this unexpected target at the net. Steeb broke Agassi’s serve for a 3-2 lead and served out the 6-4 set, while Agassi began to look like a rudderless ship.

He still was coming into the net frequently, on Steeb’s serve as well as his own, and he even started hitting low-percentage topspin swinging volleys.

It appeared as if Agassi simply decided to take charge and get this over quickly, so Gilbert could come out and try to work a miracle against Becker. But to Steeb, the new aggressive tactics meant something else, something rather encouraging.

“When he kept serving and volleying,” Steeb said, “I saw it as a sign that he was getting tired. I think he decided he couldn’t play a long match.”

After the match turned around in the third set, Agassi appeared to be so disinterested that he didn’t even chase some of the balls slightly out of his reach. That seemed particularly out of place during a Davis Cup competition that earlier featured Becker diving all over the court.

So Agassi’s endurance and desire both became topics of conversation afterward, raising questions about his slightly sore knee, which he said was no problem, and, more figuratively, about his heart. One German reporter, in broken English, referred to him as America’s Tinman. And Steeb didn’t go out of his way to refute that theory.

“You can see he’s not a player who can come back when he’s down,” Steeb said. “When he’s ahead, he’s all over you. But it is easy to fight when you are up. Maybe he just isn’t a player who can go five sets or come back when he’s down.

“If he is keeping up like this, maybe he is getting a reputation for being like that. The best thing to do against somebody like that is to just beat them.”

Steeb notwithstanding, Gorman remains an Agassi fan and apologist.

“It just takes time with a young player like Andre,” Gorman said. “Right now, he is No. 6 in the world, but there will come a day when, as No. 6 in the world, he will be able to dominate a No. 23 (Steeb).

“The match just turned there early in the third set, and Steeb’s confidence soared and Agassi’s dropped. I tried to slow him down, but he’s a fast player, anyway, and soon it just got away from him.”

And away from a U.S. team that, as recently as last Wednesday Gorman was calling a favorite to make the final.

“It is just so terribly disappointing, losing like this,” Gorman said, “because we were so close here.”

Until the mysterious disappearance of Andre Agassi.

Davis Cup Notes

Brad Gilbert won the final match Sunday, 6-4, 1-6, 6-4, over Patrick Kuhnen. Kuhnen replaced Boris Becker, who was said to be unable to play because he was fighting off a fever. Davis Cup rules necessitate that a team give a reason for substituting a player. Had Andre Agassi defeated Carl-Uwe Steeb, Becker’s fever presumably would have disappeared, like magic. . . . The match was shortened to best-of-three sets because West Germany had already won its third point. . . . Sweden beat Yugoslavia in the other semifinal, meaning that this year’s Davis Cup final will be somewhere in West Germany, Dec. 15-17.