Agassi Displays Ecstasy After Defeating Forget

A good time was had by all well into the wee hours of Friday morning at the U.S. Open. Well, all except veteran Guy Forget of France, who lost a tough match to that veteran showman and tennis player Andre Agassi.

The four-set slugfest ended with Agassi hitting a big serve, Forget slapping the return past the baseline, and Agassi leading the crowd, including girlfriend Brooke Shields, in celebration.

The score was 6-3, 7-5, 6-7 (7-5), 6-2, and not lost on a happy Agassi in the aftermath was the fact that he had been serving for the match at 5-3 of the third set.

“When I lost that,” Agassi said, “I wanted to go to the hospital and have the 90-pound bullfrog removed surgically from my throat.”

But there was no more choking after that, as Agassi closed it out in the fourth, much to the delight of what remained of a nearly packed house of 20,584. And Agassi did so against a dangerous opponent, who was once No. 4 in the world and who, at age 29, is still good enough to make a run at a quarterfinal or semifinal spot in a Grand Slam event.

“The thing I feel best about is that, after I lost it in the third, I kept my poise and won it,” said Agassi, who is beginning to look like a legitimate threat on the side of the men’s draw that is already missing Goran Ivanisevic and Boris Becker.

On the women’s side, top-seeded Steffi Graf strolled into the third round with a 6-0, 6-2 workout against Sandra Cacic. Graf hit nine aces and won the point on her first serve 92% of the time, dispatching the Florida player in 55 minutes. She said she wished she had had a tougher match, but she may have to continue wishing. Her next opponent is Radka Bobkova of the Czech Republic, ranked No. 109, or 68 points below Cacic.

One opponent Graf certainly wouldn’t take lightly is France’s Mary Pierce, who beat her in the French Open semifinals this year. Pierce struggled a bit in the opener of Thursday’s night session, eventually defeating Katerina Studenikova of Slovakia, who turns 22 today and who almost kept Pierce on the court until then before losing, 6-3, 2-6, 6-4. Pierce, seeded No. 3, actually lost more points than she won in the match, 85-84, but broke Studenikova four times.

The two highest-seeded men competing Thursday, No. 3 Sergei Bruguera and No. 9 Todd Martin, advanced through competitive straight-set matches. Bruguera, the two-time defending French Open champion, beat Andrei Olhovskiy of Russia, 7-5, 6-2, 7-6 (7-5) and Martin defeated Andrei Chesnokov of Russia, 6-3, 7-5, 6-3.

Notes

Former UCLA player Patricia Hy advanced, but former USC student Linda Harvey-Wild and Trojan player Caroline Kuhlman were ousted, as was former Stanford player Marianne Werdel of Oceanside. . . . Robbie Weiss, who won an NCAA title at Pepperdine, was eliminated by Markus Zoecke, the German who upset Goran Ivanisevic on the opening day.