Courier Ranked No. 1 Until Davis Cup Time : Tennis: He continues frustrating play, losing to Switzerland’s Rosset after Agassi gives U.S. a 1-0 lead.

Just what is it about the Davis Cup that brings out the worst in Jim Courier?

Is it the flags? The painted faces, the funny hats, the bells?

“Possible,” said Courier, who was a man of few words and a whole bunch of trouble Friday night in the Davis Cup final.

Immediately after Andre Agassi beat Jakob Hlasek to give the United States a 1-0 lead over Switzerland on the first day of play, Courier began backsliding.

While 1992 may have been Courier’s year, he didn’t own every single night.

On Friday night, the world’s No. 1-ranked player chose a pretty lousy time to be mediocre, coming from ahead to lose to Marc Rosset in a huge upset that allowed the Swiss to scramble back to a 1-1 tie with the United States after the first day of play.

Rosset, ranked No. 36, scored a 6-3, 6-7 (11-9), 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 victory that picked the underdog Swiss up off the floor of the Tarrant County Convention Center and propelled them into today’s doubles match with a renewed sense of hope.

Almost before the red and white paint had dried on the faces of the Swiss fans, Agassi was through with Hlasek. It took only 1 hour 28 minutes for Agassi to put away Hlasek in three distressingly easy sets, 6-1, 6-2, 6-2, and give the United States an early lead in the final.

It lasted 4 hours 23 minutes, which is how long it took Courier to crumble. Rosset scorched 27 aces, to offset 15 double faults, and survived seven break points while extending a puzzling streak of inconsistency for Courier in Davis Cup play.

Courier has lost his last two Davis Cup matches and is 2-5 in the international team competition.

After taking a two sets-to-one lead, Courier collapsed when he came back on the court after a 10-minute break. It wasn’t as though Rosset didn’t give him any chances, but Courier converted only one of seven break-point opportunities in the fifth set and was in a foul mood when he hit the interview room.

A sullen Courier seldom offered more than one-word answers and berated one reporter for a question about the Swiss fans.

As for his problems in Davis Cup, Courier managed six words: “Not my favorite way to play.”

Agassi has no such qualms. He managed to concoct a rout, winning 75% of his first serves and saving the only break Hlasek held against him the entire match.

Afterward, Agassi said he hardly worked up a sweat.

“I wish I could go out there and play Rosset right now,” he said.

Agassi had to settle instead for a routine blowout of Hlasek, the top-ranked Swiss singles player, who spent his time on the court on his heels trying to catch up to one of Agassi’s screeching groundstrokes. He didn’t have much luck.

“I don’t think I’m going to get a massage today,” Hlasek said. “No, it . . . was a very quick match.”

Hlasek had 38 unforced errors, lost his serve six times and generally played like someone badly outclassed.

His best shot probably occurred the time he kicked the ball over the net.

For this, he blamed Agassi.

“I couldn’t stay with him,” Hlasek said. “He’s such a good player, when he’s ahead, he just rolls over.”

After a while, Agassi turned the whole exercise into an extended fashion show for his new line of tennis clothes, this time white and black and yellow, making him look like something between a bumblebee, a soccer player and a house-painter.

Without regard to his attire, Agassi was unquestionably the only artist on the court Friday night. In a virtually flawless performance, he saw deuce on his serve only once in the first two sets and twice more in the final game of the match.

Now 20-4 in Davis Cup, Agassi has seldom played better, which was sort of Hlasek’s bad luck.

“You know, I think I had him a little frustrated,” Agassi said. “He came in, I won the point. He stayed back, I controlled the point. I was returning his first serves, hitting his second serves. There really wasn’t too much I wasn’t doing extremely well.”

Davis Cup Notes

Marc Rosset isn’t going to get any rest today. He teams with Jakob Hlasek and will play John McEnroe and Pete Sampras in the doubles match. McEnroe didn’t make too many friends among the Swiss players he was seated near during Friday’s matches. McEnroe was, well, McEnroe. At one point, he walked toward Rosset during a change over and yelled: “You’re not in Switzerland, pal, you’re in America now.” . . . Rosset said Andre Agassi made him mad by laughing when Jim Courier mounted a comeback in their singles match Friday night. “Now, my motivation to play Agassi is very big,” Rosset said.