Agassi Wins; U.S., Austria Even : Davis Cup: Victory over Skoff at Vienna comes after Chang loses to Muster.

This city and Munich are not very far apart, only four hours on the Orient Express, but Andre Agassi put a lot of distance between himself and his embarrassing performance last year in West Germany with a crucial victory Friday on the first day of the United States’ Davis Cup semifinal competition against Austria.

After coming within two points of losing the first set to Horst Skoff, Agassi used a powerful kick serve and a driving forehand to dominate the Austrian and cruise to a 7-6 (7-3), 6-0, 6-1 victory.

“I have never, ever played with anyone who put that kind of pressure on me,” said the outmatched loser, looking as though he had been run over by the aforementioned train that connects Istanbul and Paris.

Agassi’s victory, coming after Michael Chang lost the opening match to Thomas Muster, 4-6, 6-2, 6-2, 6-4, put the United States even in the best-of-five matches at 1-1, before today’s doubles play.

It also answered a lot of questions about Agassi’s “commitment”--in the euphemistic words of U.S. Davis Cup Captain Tom Gorman--that were posed in Munich last year, when Agassi blew what should have been an easy match against West Germany’s Carl-Uwe Steeb.

That loss, when the Americans already trailed the West Germans, 2-1, sank the U.S. chances in the 1989 Davis Cup and reinforced Agassi’s reputation as a player who does not do well when he or his team is behind.

However, the 20-year-old player from Las Vegas, dressed in skin-tight florescent green Spandex shorts and matching jersey, seemed to thrive under the pressure of a hostile, whistling crowd of 17,000 at the converted Prater soccer stadium on the outskirts of Vienna.

Driving Skoff from corner to corner on the rain-dampened clay surface, Agassi used his arsenal of looping topspins, inside-out forehands and wicked drop-shots to leave the Austrian tied in knots. At the end, Skoff looked like one of those blank-faced wooden dolls sold in Austrian airport gift shops. Agassi pulled the string and Skoff’s arms and legs moved.

Skoff possesses a powerful cross-court forehand and little else. He played gamely in the first set, leading Agassi, 6-5, on service. Then with Agassi serving, Skoff won the first point and pushed the game to 30-all before Agassi hit two big kick serves to force a tiebreaker.

Showing impressive composure, Agassi dispatched the Austrian, 7-3, in the tiebreaker with an ace on the final point.

“I hoped for the best and prepared for the worst,” Agassi said in a postmatch news conference, for which he wore a T-shirt emblazoned with an American flag. “I hoped Michael (Chang) would win, but I was prepared to come out behind, 1-0.”

He also said he has solved his problems with the demands of team competition by agreeing to a series of compromises with Gorman. For example, he said he is now willing to eat meals with his teammates, Chang and doubles players Rick Leach and Jim Pugh, although he much prefers eating with his three regular traveling companions--his coach, his brother and his personal trainer.

“As much as I hate to say it,” explained Agassi, as usual saying it anyway, “eating dinner with Rick Leach, Jim Pugh and Michael Chang is not going to make me play any better.”

The other players didn’t get a chance to say if Dinner With Andre would help their game. Leach and Pugh will represent the United States in doubles today, before the second round of singles Sunday, when Agassi will play Muster and Chang will go against what remains of Skoff.

Wimbledon doubles champions Leach and Pugh are slight favorites over the Austrian pair of Muster and Alex Antonitsch. However, Austrian Captain Filip Krajcik gives his duo a good shot. “Leach and Pugh are not that good on clay,” Krajcik said, “I think it is going to be a very good match and difficult for the States.”

As for Chang, the 18-year-old player from Placentia was simply put under too much pressure by Muster, a specialist on clay, and pushed into making an uncharacteristic 56 unforced errors.

Chang conceded that Muster “was able to dictate more of the points and keep me playing defensive tennis.”

Muster, who extended his Davis Court record to 23-0 on clay, said he was glad to play Chang in front of a hometown audience.

In the United States, he said, crowds almost always favor the boyish, 143-pound Chang because “he looks so tiny and skinny and poor.”