TENNIS / WIMBLEDON : Agassi Demonstrates Some Net Gains

Prince is already in town for concerts at Earl’s Court. Michael Jackson was in town for a news conference to announce his world tour. And on a somewhat smaller scale, the Andre Agassi Show closed its first day’s run on a successful note Wednesday at Wimbledon, complete with the ritual curtain calls.

First, there was Agassi putting the finishing touches on a 5-7, 6-1, 7-5, 7-5 victory over Andrei Chesnokov, held over from the night before when darkness halted the match early in the third set.

Afterward, Agassi did his usual number. He faced the stands and bowed from his waist. He spun around and waved. He peeled off his shirt and tossed it into the cheering crowd at Court 1. He walked off to more cheers, but not before walking backward a few paces as he waved goodby.

It was vintage Agassi, all in all. And the fact that he did it under the very proper noses of the All England Club members in the very sanctuary of tennis, well, let’s just say a tennis lounge act rarely enjoys such a venue.

As whole sections of his fans cheered his every small step and held signs urging him on, Agassi moved into the second round of the tournament he loved to loathe . . . but that was before last year.

Agassi came back to Wimbledon last year and made it to the quarterfinals in his first appearance on the finely manicured grass courts of the All England Club since 1987. That’s when he lost in the first round and said, basically, that the only thing grass is good for is chinch bugs.

But Agassi is older now--he is all the way up to 22--and says Wimbledon is just a great place for him to be.

“There’s no tournament like it and there never will be,” Agassi said. “It’s like the Masters . . . you can have a tournament anywhere in the world and it will never seem to hold the mystique Wimbledon has.”

Neither Agassi nor Chesnokov are grass-court specialists, but Agassi said he got a few tips on how to hang around the net and score points after counseling from his French Open doubles partner, John McEnroe.

“John was offering me a lot of advice,” Agassi said.

“Coming into Wimbledon, I knew that it was going to be crucial to make sure I was comfortable at the net. I’m only basing it on this one match because it’s the only match I’ve played here, but I feel like me being at the net is something that is starting to come second nature to me.

“It’s something I really want to spend a lot more energy on. . . . The times I’m up there, I’m not wondering where to be after the first volley . . . and I’m quite confident with it right now.”

Agassi broke Chesnokov at 5-5 in both the third and fourth sets, helped along in the deciding set on a key double fault by Chesnokov to give Agassi two break-point chances at 15-40.

Serving for the match, Agassi began with an ace and finished on his second match point with a nicely placed forehand volley.

“I think I started quite lovely, to be honest,” said Agassi, who plays Eduardo Masso in the second round.

A quartet of big names were already in the third round: Stefan Edberg, Michael Stich, Pete Sampras and Ivan Lendl. Edberg needed two tiebreakers, but defeated Gary Muller, 7-6 (7-3), 6-3, 7-6 (7-4); Stich needed one tiebreaker to subdue Amos Mansdorf, 4-6, 7-6 (7-4), 6-3, 6-3, and Lendl also needed one to beat Arne Thoms, 7-5, 7-6 (8-6), 1-6, 7-5.

Sampras struggled through four sets--three of them tiebreakers--before moving into a third-round match with Scott Davis by defeating Todd Woodbridge, 7-6 (7-2), 7-6 (7-4), 6-7 (9-7), 6-4.

Davis needed four sets and three tiebreakers to defeat Karsten Braasch.

Wimbledon Notes

Martina Navratilova’s second-round match with former UCLA player Kimberly Po, 20, was postponed because of darkness at 8:40 p.m. and Navratilova on the ropes. Po had just evened the match, 6-2, 3-6. . . . Monica Seles and Mary Joe Fernandez got through to the third round with no difficulty, but fifth-seeded Arantxa Sanchez Vicario wasn’t as fortunate. Julie Halard of France upset Sanchez Vicario, who doesn’t like grass anyway, 6-3, 2-6, 6-3. “I am not disappointed because anything can happen on this surface,” Sanchez Vicario said. “Probably I think today was not a good day for me,” she said. . . . Fernandez defeated Nanne Dahlman, 7-5, 6-2, and will play Amy Frazier in the third round.

Seles warmed up for a third-round match against Laura Gildemeister by trouncing Sabine Appelmans, 6-3, 6-2. Afterward, Seles was once again grilled by the tabloid reporters about her grunt, asked if she was addicted to butter and questioned whether she has been banned from wearing form-fitting tennis clothes. Question: Have they told you not to wear figure-hugging outfits because your bottom is too big? Answer: “You would have to vote on it to decide. I don’t think it’s anybody’s business what do I think.” . . . Qualifier Mark Knowles of UCLA lost to Wally Masur, 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (7-3).