TENNIS ROUNDUP : Outburst Helps Spur Agassi to Win

Second-seeded Andre Agassi took a page out of the John McEnroe handbook Friday when Agassi used an angry exchange with the chair umpire to propel him into the semifinals of the AT&T; Challenge clay-court tournament at Roswell, Ga.

Agassi rallied from a set and a break down to beat unseeded Jacco Eltingh of the Netherlands, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.

Also advancing was top-seeded Pete Sampras, who had 16 aces in a 7-6 (7-4), 6-2 victory over 39-year-old Jimmy Connors.

Today, Agassi will play Peru’s Pablo Arraya, who defeated No. 3 Alexander Volkov of Russia, 6-4, 6-7 (8-6), 6-3. Sampras will face unseeded Todd Witsken, who beat Francisco Roig of Spain, 7-5, 6-3.

Agassi, who celebrated his 22nd birthday this week, overcame his shaky start to pull even at 3-3 in the second set after a heated dispute over a line call with the chair umpire.

“The controversy with the umpire helped me,” Agassi said. “I started getting pumped up. I think I was tentative up to that point with my strokes, but after I got angered I started to be a lot more effective with my shots, which turned out to be the difference.”

Agassi broke Eltingh in the eighth game and served out the set to even the match.

In the first-set tiebreaker, Sampras trailed, 3-1, but won six of the next seven points to take the set.

“The fact that I was down in the tiebreak and came back to win it was a huge momentum switch,” Sampras said.

“You’ve got to expect Jimmy to try as hard as he can until the end of the match. But I think he might have run out of gas a little at the end of the second set.”

Top-seeded Steffi Graf overpowered unseeded Leila Meshki of Georgia, 6-2, 6-2, and second-seeded Gabriela Sabatini defeated seventh-seeded Judith Wiesner of Austria, 6-1, 6-2, in the quarterfinals of a $350,000 tournament at Hamburg.

Graf will play Anke Huber, a fellow German who upset fourth-seeded Manuela Maleeva-Fragniere, 5-7, 6-2, 7-5. Huber, 17, is back this week after a three-month rest to nurse an injured ankle.

Michael Stich was upset by unseeded Magnus Larsson of Sweden, 6-4, 6-4, in the quarterfinals of a $300,000 tournament at Munich. Stich, another German, had trouble with his serve and made repeated errors, losing the match with a faulty backhand.

Sixth-seeded Francisco Clavet of Spain defeated third-seeded Alberto Mancini of Argentina, 7-5, 6-1, in the quarterfinals of the City of Madrid Grand Prix.