In Real Tournament, Agassi Is Really Gone : U.S. Open: Enqvist, an unheralded Swede, eliminates former Wimbledon champion in five sets in first round.

Andre Agassi will probably remember 1993 as the year he beat John McEnroe at the U.S. Open. Others will remember it as the year he got flushed out of Flushing Meadow in the first round by a No. 61-ranked Swede named Thomas Enqvist.

Agassi, who may or may not be Barbra Streisand’s prince of tides, was outdueled in an up-and-down five-setter, the 19-year-old who had never before played in the U.S. Open prevailing, 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 6-7 (7-3), 6-2. That left Agassi’s biggest moment here this year his joke-around victory over McEnroe in Sunday’s Arthur Ashe charity event, the day before the real tournament began.

The match in the stadium Tuesday took 3 hours 22 minutes, and it was a roller coaster ride from which the 16th-seeded Agassi, the 1992 Wimbledon champion and one of the marquee players here, got very little enjoyment.

“It’s tough to say what happened out there,” he said. “I didn’t feel sharp from the first point to the last. I was trying to fight to stay in it, but sometimes, when you get down two sets, it just takes too much out of you.”

Agassi also seemed somewhat depleted by, of all things, tennis over-think. For those who have followed Agassi’s career, from the bright lights of Las Vegas to the bright lights of the world, this is an entirely new concept. Even Agassi was quick to admit discomfort with this Caltech stuff, as presented to him recently by his newest coach, wily old Pancho Segura.

“(Segura) is big on addressing the score, making sure you know what you are doing,” Agassi said. “In other words, don’t go for the drop shot at 15-all, but if you are up, 40-love, that is fine. That type of thing.”

But Agassi said that this thinking “type of thing” may not be all that it is cracked up to be.

“It is a big debate in my mind,” he said. “How much do I just rely on my instincts and how much do I really have a clue as to what I’m doing?”

While saying that he should win a match like this either way, Agassi admitted that the conflict remains. What to be--a mindless whacker of the tennis ball or a Phi Beta Kappa strategist in Nikes? And the questions that conflict raises are endless: Is “Image Everything,” or does it take some calculus, too? And will Agassi soon pose for a statue in front of Caesars Palace, his elbow on his knee and his chin in the palm of his hand?

Agassi, while admitting that he hasn’t given up on Segura and the cerebral stuff simply because of one defeat in the U.S. Open, addressed his problem with a statement that one journalist labeled a lifetime quote.

He said: “I made it very clear early on (to Segura) that I am not the type of player that responds well to a lot of thinking.”

Enqvist has been on the pro tour only since 1991. He had won only four matches in 16 tournaments this year until he won a tournament, beating Ivan Lendl along the way, at Schenectady, N.Y., last week. He proclaimed this his biggest victory yet. Agassi didn’t proclaim this his most miserable defeat yet, but did say, “I’m going to feel a lot worse if this guy gets his butt kicked in the next round.”

There were no reported Streisand sightings. Most likely, the reported object of Agassi’s affections doesn’t do first rounds.

This year at the U.S. Open, neither did Agassi.