TENNIS ROUNDUP : Unseeded Players Pull Rank on Agassi, McEnroe

Wimbledon champion Andre Agassi and John McEnroe were upset by players ranked 92nd and 95th in the world Wednesday night in the second round of the NationsBank tournament at Washington.

Kevin Curren beat second-seeded Agassi, 7-5, 6-4, and McEnroe was defeated by Britain’s Jeremy Bates, 6-2, 1-6, 6-4.

“I don’t think it helped to play here after being intoxicated for five straight days after Wimbledon,” Agassi said. “It’s never enjoyable to lose, but I’ve had worse losses at worse times.

“I’ve been going nonstop,” Agassi said of his post-Wimbledon schedule. “Coming here, things slowed down for me. That shows you how hectic things have been.”

If he had it to do all over again, Agassi wouldn’t have been here at all.

“I committed after the first week of Wimbledon. If I could have foretold the future, I don’t think I would have committed, because I think it’s too much of an adjustment too soon,” he said.

“He had a commitment, and it’s good that he honored it,” Curren said. “But I knew there was an opportunity here, with him coming off an all-time high.”

The fifth-seeded McEnroe has played four times in Washington over the past 15 years, and has never advanced past the third round.

McEnroe blew a 3-1 lead in the final set.

“He hit the shots, but losing my composure was a big mistake,” said McEnroe, who was upset over a line call when serving at 4-3 in the third set.

Top-seeded Petr Korda of Czechoslovakia fought off an upset bid, but No. 4 Aaron Krickstein wasn’t as fortunate in play during the day.

Korda had to rally for a 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 victory over Jimmy Brown on a stadium court where the temperature reached 107 degrees.

Krickstein, who hadn’t played since the French Open in May, was upset by Guillaume Raoux of France, 7-5, 3-6, 6-3.

In other matches, third-seeded Ivan Lendl defeated Jared Palmer, 6-4, 6-1; sixth-seeded MaliVai Washington defeated Thomas Hogstedt of Sweden, 7-5, 6-0; Amos Mansdorf of Israel beat Ronald Agenor of Haiti, 6-2, 6-0, and Alex Antonitsch of Austria got past Leonardo Lavalle of Mexico, 4-6, 6-0, 6-2.

The United States team knew very little about Denmark, but it learned the hard way.

Gigi Fernandez and Lori McNeil ran into unexpected trouble before scoring a 3-0 victory over the Danes in the second round of the Federation Cup at Frankfurt, Germany.

Fernandez rallied for a 4-6, 6-3, 6-0 victory over Karin Ptaszek, and McNeil struggled early before beating Sofie Albinus, 7-5, 6-0.

In today’s quarterfinals, the Americans will meet fourth-seeded France, which beat the Commonwealth of Independent States, 3-0, without losing a set.

Germany beat the Netherlands, 2-1; defending champion Spain defeated Canada, 2-1, and Poland surprised Sweden, 2-1. Czechoslovakia, Argentina and Australia also advanced.

Bernd Karbacher of Germany upset third-seeded Michael Chang, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3, in the second round of a $1-million Grand Prix tournament at Stuttgart, Germany.

Top-seeded Stefan Edberg of Sweden beat Christian Miniussi of Argentina, 7-5, 6-2, and advanced to the third round.

Francisco Clavet of Spain upset hometown favorite Carl Uwe-Steeb, 6-3, 7-6 (8-6), to disappoint a Stuttgart crowd of 7,000.