TENNIS ROUNDUP : Gilbert Serves Agassi With 6-1, 6-2 Setback

The way Brad Gilbert was serving, Andre Agassi must have thought it was Pete Sampras.

Third-seeded Gilbert routed top-seeded Agassi, 6-1, 6-2, in 59 minutes Saturday and advanced to the final of the Volvo tournament at San Francisco.

In today’s final, Gilbert will face sixth-seeded Darren Cahill, who rallied for a 4-6, 6-4, 7-5 victory over seventh-seeded Wally Masur in Saturday night’s all-Australian semifinal.

Cahill reached the semifinals by knocking off fourth-seeded John McEnroe, 7-6 (7-3), 3-6, 6-3, in a match that ended late Friday night.

Agassi called the loss to Gilbert his worst defeat since Sampras beat him in the final of the U.S. Open. “He steamrolled me,” said Agassi, who beat Gilbert in two of their three previous meetings. “He has never served that well. Even the big servers in the game don’t serve that well.

“I never got rolling. There’s not much you can do when he’s playing that well. My second serve was a little weak. If he had given me a chance to get in (the match), it might have been different.”

Gilbert, who had 12 services aces and faced only two break points, faced only two break points on his serve in the match and broke Agassi twice in each set.

The 10th-ranked Gilbert, who grew up and lives across the bay in Piedmont, will making his third appearance in the final of the San Francisco tournament. He won the event in 1989.

“You have five days a year that no matter who you play you win,” Gilbert said. “And you have eight days you can’t beat anybody.”

Arantxa Sanchez Vicario of Spain beat Zina Garrison, Martina Navratilova and Jennifer Capriati to win the $250,000 Women’s Shoot-Out at Dallas.

Sanchez Vicario needed just 22 minutes to earn the $100,000 first prize in the one-day exhibition. All matches consisted of best-of-12-point tiebreakers.

In the final, Sanchez Vicario beat Capriati, 7-4, 7-3. Earlier, the Spaniard got past Garrison, 7-3, and defeated Navratilova, 7-2.

Capriati reached the final with victories over Mary Joe Fernandez, 7-3, and Monica Seles, 7-4. The 14-year-old Floridian earned $50,000 for finishing second.

Eight-seeded Alexander Volkov defeated fifth-seeded Jakob Hlasek, 6-3, 6-4, to reach the final of a $600,000 indoor tournament at Milan, Italy.

Volkov will play Cristiano Caratti of Italy, who beat Carl-Uwe Steeb of Germany, 7-6 (8-6), 6-7 (7-5), 6-3.