Opening Day Nearly Perfect for Agassi : Wimbledon: Defending champion’s sore wrist and elbow don’t bother him during straight-set victory over Karbacher.

Now here’s how to make a real entrance at Wimbledon:

You put Charlton Heston in the Royal Box, you knock as many aces as there are Commandments, change your serve so it seems as if you’re hitting with a stone tablet, wave to the crowd, bow twice, win in straight sets and hit the door.

“I could have played 10 sets out there,” Andre Agassi said. “I didn’t want to leave the court.”

Nearly everything went according to plan for Agassi, the reigning Wimbledon champion, who started slowly, then surged past Bernd Karbacher, 7-5, 6-4, 6-0, in a first-round match Monday on opening day.

A group of youngsters in the first row of stands held up a message on a bedsheet to greet Agassi as he walked onto the court to enthusiastic applause: “Agassi is No. 1, No Question.”

Agassi was grateful for the warm reception.

“I came out here today, it was the second-best feeling of my life,” he said. “The first one was winning it.”

That was understandable. Besides being down a service break in the first set, Agassi didn’t have anything much to worry about.

His sore wrist and elbow weren’t bothering him and neither was Karbacher, who was getting over bronchitis.

So, the injured beat the sick and even if it was a match better suited for a hospital ward than Centre Court, Agassi’s serve was a picture of health.

Karbacher said he had one major problem, besides trying to track the ball on Agassi’s serve.

“Everything is much harder when you cannot breathe well,” Karbacher said.

Agassi sent 10 aces skidding over the grass, matching his career high, all the while using a new motion designed to limit stress on his wrist. In Agassi’s new serve, the backswing is shortened to almost nothing, sort of like the way Jay Berger used to serve.

Agassi rated the results as semi-encouraging.

“I think I am just 50% comfortable with it and 50% tentative with it,” he said.

Meanwhile, fortunate to still be playing is Stefan Edberg. The two-time Wimbledon champion got out of the first round with a shaky 7-6 (11-9), 6-4, 6-7 (9-7), 7-6 (7-5) victory over Greg Rusedski, a 19-year-old qualifier from Canada.

Neither Jim Courier nor Michael Stich experienced the same difficulties as Edberg. Courier blitzed Gianluca Pozzi, 6-0, 7-5, 6-4, and Stich breezed past Jan Siemerink, 6-2, 7-6 (7-5), 6-1.

Courier, whose best Wimbledon result was the quarterfinals in 1991, said he isn’t ready to talk about winning here. “Ask me in about five rounds, if I get there,” Courier said. “It’s hard to say. Wimbledon, for me, it’s not my natural surface. It’s a crapshoot, really.”

Until recently, Agassi felt the same way about his chances. The problem was the tendinitis in his right wrist. Agassi went to five specialists, who told him they don’t expect his wrist to get worse in the short term.

Agassi said his wrist was so painful in early April, when he lost to Sergi Bruguera in the quarterfinals at Barcelona, that playing Wimbledon was in doubt.

The only other match Agassi has played since was in Halle, Germany, last week, when he lost to Carl-Uwe Steeb.

“If you don’t play for a month and a half (you’re nervous),” Agassi said. “I mean, it really has a lot to do with just not playing a lot of matches and coming back to defend the greatest title in the world. You put all those things together and you think about a lot of things when you step on the court.”

Besides his serve, Agassi has a couple of other new wrinkles this year. He is keeping his shirt tucked in, unlike last year when his midriff was often exposed.

Agassi also seems to be packing a little extra weight, which might be why his shirt remains in place.

“I think I just had a big breakfast,” he said.

Wimbledon Notes

In failing light, shortly before 9 p.m., Michael Chang’s first-round match with Paul Haarhuis was suspended in the fifth set with Chang about to serve at 3-1. Chang won the first two sets, 6-2, 6-2, and Haarhuis won the third and fourth, 6-4, 7-6 (7-5). The match will be completed today. . . . How to do it the hard way: Former Florida All-American Nicole Arendt of Somerset, N.J., blew 10 match points before beating Isabelle Demongeot, 2-6, 6-3, 14-12. Demongeot double-faulted on the 11th match point.

Hard way II: Luis Herrera lost the first two sets to 15th-seeded Karel Novacek, then came back and won, 4-6, 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-3. . . . There will be an all-Michigan second-round match, Aaron Krickstein of Grosse Pointe playing Mal Washington of Swartz Creek. Krickstein defeated Alex O’Brien, and Washington, who was 0-6 in five-set Grand Slam matches as a pro, defeated Guillaume Raoux, 4-6, 6-1, 1-6, 6-2, 6-3. . . . Ivan Lendl, playing in his 14th Wimbledon and looking for his first title, opened with a 6-7 (10-8), 6-4, 6-1, 6-3 victory over qualifier Brian Devening.

In fashion news, Gabriela Sabatini and Carrie Cunningham showed up for their first-round match in identical outfits. Sabatini played better in hers and won in straight sets. . . . Three players from Southern California are in the junior girls’ field. They are 15-year-old Amanda Bascia of Lomita, 15-year-old Meilen Tu of Northridge and Janet Lee of Rancho Palos Verdes. Bascia and Tu, doubles partners, are the youngest players on the national team. Bascia lost to 12-year-old Martina Hingis of Switzerland in the French Open junior girls’ semifinal.