Agassi Gets Fine, but No Suspension : Tennis: A committee docks him $25,000 for trying to pull out of the Grand Slam Cup.

Andre Agassi was fined $25,000 today for his withdrawal from the Grand Slam Cup last month, but he was spared a threatened suspension from major tennis tournaments this year.

The Grand Slam Committee fined Agassi the maximum allowed under its rules for “withdrawal clearly without good cause,” committee administrator Bill Babcock said.

The committee, made up of directors of the four Grand Slam tournaments, also had the option of banning Agassi from one or more of this year’s Grand Slam events--the Australian, French and U.S. Opens and Wimbledon.

Agassi originally signed to play in the $6-million event, but pulled out a month before the 16-player tournament and ridiculed it as nothing more than a lucrative exhibition.

The world’s fourth-ranked player changed his mind two weeks later after the International Tennis Federation threatened punishment, and he asked to be readmitted to the Grand Slam Cup.

But Agassi pulled out again a few days later because of a chest injury suffered during the Davis Cup.

“Once this investigation is complete you discover he clearly broke his word and broke his promise, but then he clearly tried to fix it,” Babcock said in a telephone interview. “What intervened was an injury.

“This injury prevented him from otherwise trying to repair the injury caused by his broken promise. In that case the serious penalty of suspension is inappropriate.”

Agassi said recently that he would consider playing this summer at Wimbledon, a tournament he has skipped for the past three years.