U.S. Gets 2-0 Lead in Singles : Davis Cup: Agassi rallies for a five-set victory and Chang sweeps the second match.

So, Michael Chang, this Davis Cup thing, is it over? Is it all downhill from here?

“Downhill--I thought you said Down Under,” Chang joked.

That is the approximate location of Australia’s Davis Cup hopes, which appear to be buried beneath the crushed red clay court of the Suncoast Dome, where 17,994 watched Chang and Andre Agassi propel the United States to a 2-0 lead over the Aussies.

It wasn’t easy for Agassi, who labored 3 hours 36 minutes before slipping past Richard Fromberg, 4-6, 6-2, 4-6, 6-2, 6-4, and then made the surprising announcement that he nearly pulled out on Wednesday because of the flu.

But now all that stands between the United States and its first Davis Cup title in eight years is one victory in the last three matches, which could happen today when the doubles are played.

So is it over? No, said U.S. Captain Tom Gorman, who admitted with a straight face: “We feel very, very good about it.”

No team has won the Davis Cup after losing the first two matches since Australia in 1939.

The current Aussie reaction?

“We got the job in front of us,” Captain Neale Fraser said.

The job became tougher Friday night after the two crushing defeats, administered first by Agassi and then Chang. But while Chang’s 6-2, 7-6 (7-4), 6-0 victory over Darren Cahill was a picture of simplicity, Agassi experienced an unexpected rash of problems in his match against Fromberg because of flu.

“If I could go back in time, Aaron (Krickstein) would be playing right now,” Agassi said. Krickstein is an alternate on the U.S. team.

Gorman, who said he alerted Krickstein last weekend to standby, said it was obvious to him that Agassi was not up to strength against Fromberg.

“I noticed a big difference in him,” Gorman said. “I’m right on the court, so I can see it in his face.”

The flu couldn’t knock out Agassi, but Fromberg managed to come pretty close. Fromberg, who has curly hair and a dead straight serve, rifled 15 aces past Agassi. At one point, the Aussie led, two sets to one, and felt downright cocky about his Davis Cup debut.

“I was feeling pretty confident I was going to win,” Fromberg said.

And why not? To hear Agassi tell it, it sounded as if he came off his deathbed to play. Agassi said he didn’t eat Sunday, Monday or Tuesday, but he informed Gorman on Wednesday that he would be able to play after all.

Agassi blamed his bout with flu, not Fromberg, for a less-than-spectacular performance.

“I felt like I was losing it more than he was winning it,” Agassi said. “There’s no question the virus has taken a toll on me. I was tired. I was much weaker than I thought I would be.”

Even so, Agassi said he never saw a doctor during his illness and neither did he take any medication, although he expects to be fine for his match Sunday against Cahill.

Cahill, who was swept in 2 hours 11 minutes, did not seem to take Agassi’s illness seriously.

“Did he look sick to you?” Cahill asked. “I don’t listen to what he says.”

However, Gorman does, and he hinted that Agassi would not play Sunday if the United States has already clinched the Davis Cup.

For a while, this did not seem likely. Agassi had won only one of six other five-set matches and was teetering on the edge of another as Fromberg dispatched a convoy of big serves at him, the balls bouncing off the backstops behind the baseline.

With the United States down a set after the third set, there was a 15-minute break and once play was resumed, Fromberg found his momentum had chilled.

“It was my first Davis Cup match and my first break, and when I came back out I was a little bit cold,” Fromberg said. “I felt the first game was really crucial.”

Agassi broke Fromberg in the first game of the fourth set, closed it out in a hurry, then power-stroked his way to a 5-2 lead in the fifth set. Agassi became more aggressive in the final set, in which he accounted for 24 of his 75 winners.

But serving for the match, Agassi failed to win a point. When Fromberg held at love, Agassi served again for the match at 5-4. This time, he ended it, but not before Fromberg forced a third match point.

Agassi had blown the first one when he went for too big of a shot and slugged a forehand wide. He missed the second when he hesitated and came in halfheartedly behind his second serve with Fromberg returning the ball at Agassi’s feet.

The third match point he didn’t let get away. Agassi blasted a forehand past Fromberg, who seemed rooted at the baseline, then raised his arms in celebration and was soon running off the court with his index fingers in the air.

It was a relieved if somewhat blanched Agassi that entered the interview room.

“I don’t think I took him lightly, but I anticipated being in a little more control than that,” Agassi said. “Coming into the match, I anticipated me winning it a lot easier than that.”

Such is the elevation of Agassi’s confidence that he expects to win easily even if he was so sick he nearly withdrew two days before. Fromberg, for one, wasn’t swallowing Agassi story of a three-day fast.

“It’s a bit of rubbish, really,” Fromberg said.

Australians Pat Cash and John Fitzgerald will have the edge in Davis Cup experience in today’s doubles match against Americans Rick Leach and Jim Pugh.

Cash and Fitzgerald are 6-2 in Davis Cup matches starting in 1985. Leach and Pugh are undefeated in three matches, all in 1990.

“This is a good chance to prove ourselves,” Leach said. “We know it’ll be a tough match.”