TENNIS ROUNDUP : Courier, Agassi Both Lose in Fourth Round at Florida

It would be safe to say that Jim Courier and Andre Agassi were a little out of their element Thursday at the Lipton Championships at Key Biscayne, Fla.

Top-seeded Courier was forced to play his second match of the day because rain had backed up the schedule. He lost in the fourth round to Mark Woodforde of Australia, 6-3, 2-6, 6-2. Eight hours earlier, Courier defeated Mikael Pernfors, 6-0, 6-3.

As for Agassi, a poor playing surface forced him off the stadium court and onto a side court. An overflow crowd watched him lose to Richard Krajicek of the Netherlands, 6-2, 7-5.

“I can count on one hand how many times a year I’m not playing on center court, and the conditions are quite a bit different,” the No. 8-seeded Agassi said. “Everybody was a little rowdy, and it felt a little chaotic out there.”

Serving and trailing Woodforde, 1-3, 30-15 in the final set, Courier became upset when a linesman called one of his shots long. He lost the next two points and the game, and while walking to his seat during the changeover, he shoved chair umpire Dana Loconto’s chair with his forearm.

Loconto issued a code violation for unsportsmanlike conduct to Courier, who also protested a call on a crucial point in the first set.

“It was a poor performance,” Courier said. “I had a poor performance. (Loconto) had a poor performance.”

Courier declined to blame the schedule for his loss. He will not be fined for his outburst, officials said.

Also advancing to today’s quarterfinals were No. 2 Pete Sampras, No. 3 Stefan Edberg, No. 5 Petr Korda, No. 14 Malivai Washington and unseeded players, Patrick McEnroe and Marcos Ondruska of South Africa.

In women’s play, top-seeded Steffi Graf, No. 2 Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, No. 3 Gabriela Sabatini and No. 16 Kimiko Date won quarterfinal matches.

Horst Skoff and Gilbert Schaller of Austria advanced to the quarterfinals of the Casablanca Open with victories in Morocco.