Courier a Winner on Payday : Tennis: He says the court is his office and playing is his job, and he beats Forget in five sets at Indian Wells for his check.

If Sunday’s Newsweek Champions Cup final really was just another day at the office, as Jim Courier claimed Saturday, at least he got paid pretty well for it.

By the time all the coins stopped rolling in, Courier probably decided to leave town in a Brinks trunk. First, he cooled off Guy Forget in a numbingly efficient 3-hour 30-minute endurance test, worth $125,000, then split $50,000 with partner Javier Sanchez for winning the doubles.

Thus, Courier’s accumulation of wealth might have equaled the approximate gross community product of his hometown of Dade City, Fla., previously famous for an orange juice plant and now a 20-year-old who hits tennis balls as if he is angry at them.

He isn’t, is he?

“Naw, I’m just confident,” Courier said.

In a five-set final that made up in length for what it lacked in real suspense, Courier won his second tournament of his four-year career, a 4-6, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7-4) decision over fifth-ranked Forget.

Courier came from behind, trailing Forget by a set and a break in the fourth set, then closed out the match by winning his first-set tiebreaker, aided by a disputed line call.

After chopping down Forget in the third set with three service breaks, Courier was nearly untouchable the rest of the way. He lost only three points on his serve in the fifth set and stood at 1-1 in the tiebreaker when he got a big break.

Forget had engaged Courier in a baseline rally when Courier hit a looping topspin forehand close to the line and Forget slapped the ball past the baseline, Courier winning the point.

Forget argued with chair umpire Dana Loconto that the linesman should have called Courier’s shot out, but to no avail.

“It was clearly long,” Forget said. “And it was really a slow ball, not a 120-m.p.h. ball that they missed. It’s like two points difference almost.”

Courier won the next two points for 4-1 and gave himself four match points at 6-2. He quickly wasted two of them, but closed out his biggest payday when his return caught Forget in mid-step and Forget popped a volley long.

The Courier ledger for the week showed three victories over top 10 players--No. 4 Andre Agassi, No. 8 Emilio Sanchez and No. 5 Forget--and also showed a dramatic upturn in his Davis Cup possibilities.

When the U.S. plays its war-delayed first round Davis Cup match in Mexico City, March 29-31, Agassi and Aaron Krickstein are supposed to play singles, but neither is locked in right now. Agassi said the delay has tightened his schedule so that he may not be able to play, and Krickstein has elbow and ankle injuries.

A possible solution? Try Courier.

“I would like to be asked to play,” Courier said. “I will play if asked.”

U.S. Capt. Tom Gorman said he has already asked Courier to stand by.

“But we couldn’t go wrong with someone like Courier,” Gorman said.

Courier held similar feelings about Jose Higueras, the 38-year-old former Spanish Davis Cup star, who tutored him for several weeks on the courts at Mission Hills.

Higueras, whom Courier called “a thinking man’s coach,” took a little bit of heat off the former Little League pitcher’s groundstrokes and advised him to mix up his game, alternating power with tact--or fastballs and changeups, if you will.

“I was just thinking a little bit out there,” Courier said. “I was trying to work my way into the match and not trying to bang may way into the match.”

In the end, Forget helped by hitting his way out of it. He made 19 of his 69 unforced errors in the fifth set, during which he made only half of his first serves.

“People tell me it was a great match,” Forget said. “I don’t think it was a great match. If I played a great match, I would have won.

“Ahead a set and a break, when I serve well, I win eight out of 10 times, I guess,” he said.

Of course, this happened to be one of those odd times.