TENNIS NOTEBOOK : Agassi Is Not Fooling Anyone

Andre Agassi’s act is weak.

His decision to walk away from a meaningless match at the Davis Cup final on Sunday, claiming an injury, was nothing but a thinly disguised attempt to free himself of a commitment to play in the controversial Grand Slam Cup beginning Dec. 11 in Munich. Needing an out, he created one.

It was as if Agassi were bringing a doctor’s note to the teacher excusing him from gym class. Even the crowd in the Suncoast Dome, which booed Agassi and treated Australian opponent Darren Cahill to a standing ovation, sensed that Agassi was pulling a fast one.

So did Cahill. “He walked around like he was injured,” Cahill said. “He didn’t look injured when he hit his ground strokes, though.”

Agassi’s problems began when he agreed to play in the Grand Slam Cup, an ill-conceived special event dreamed up by the International Tennis Federation. John McEnroe and Boris Becker criticized the exhibition as a transparent effort to upstage last month’s ATP Tour Championship and refused to enter. But Agassi did enter.

Then when the ATP -- a rival of the ITF -- gently began to persuade its players to pull out of the event, Agassi withdrew. Then Agassi feared the ITF would ban him from the four Grand Slam events in 1991. Then the tournament promoter threatened to sue Agassi. Then Agassi agreed to go to Munich “reluctantly.”

He called the ITF “power-hungry,” too.

What Agassi needed was a bona fide reason to skip the event -- a doctor’s note -- and what better way to call attention to a torn chest muscle than to walk off the court during the Davis Cup? So he quickly left after splitting sets, awarding Cahill a tainted 6-4, 4-6 (ret.) victory the Aussie didn’t want to accept.

If Agassi was that badly injured, he should have just tanked the last few games and at least let the match come to a conclusion. After all, this is a player who sometimes tanks whole sets. Instead, he put on a charade that was a slap in the face to the adoring crowds who cheered him all week.

But this time the fans knew they had been had. Said Cahill: “I wouldn’t want a guy like that on my team.”

Under the circumstances, it seemed sadly inappropriate that the Davis Cup organizers decided to use Lee Greenwood’s stirring passage from the song, “God Bless the USA” as the event’s theme. The lyric began, “I’m proud to be an American ...” Greenwood obviously never met Agassi.

It’s a good thing the clay for the court came from Alabama. If the surface had been imported from West Germany, as first planned, then you couldn’t have said the 18,156 who watched on Saturday represented the largest crowd to watch a Davis Cup match on American soil.

The doubles team of Rick Leach and Jim Pugh made good heroes in the United States’ 3-2 victory. They suffered through a recent slump without complaint and their conduct was exemplary. When Leach said he was “shaking all over” when he served at match point, it sounded genuine.

“I’m ecstatic,” U.S. captain Tom Gorman said. He looked it. He did a good job under difficult circumstances and deserves to be rehired.

Although Neale Fraser, the foxy Aussie captain, comes off as a cantankerous old mule, he does have charm and a sense of humor. After hearing Pat Cash moan about the bad bounces on the clay court, Fraser said: “Don’t mind him. Even the court he’s got at home he’s upset with.”

And John Fitzgerald, the transplanted Australian who lives in California, was quick on the draw when he was asked how he felt about playing the Americans. “Hey, I live here,” he said. “I love you guys.”

Fraser was right to complain about the starting times. By beginning the Friday singles rubbers at 5 p.m. and the Saturday doubles rubber at 1 p.m., the United States Tennis Association virtually prevented the Aussies from using Cash, their best player, both in singles and doubles.

That’s the biggest reason Fraser scrubbed Cash from singles play. And the Americans knew it.

“We’ve complained, we’ve argued, we’ve petitioned about these things,” Fraser said. “But we can’t seem to get the people in charge to make the right decision.”

But he made enough noise to force a rule change for the future. Beginning next year, no match will start after 4 p.m. local time, and there must be 22 hours between the start of play each day.

Fraser’s last word on the dispute over the clay surface: “We love playing you Americans. We’ll play you on ice. We’ll play you on wood. We’ll play you on water.”