AUSTRALIAN OPEN : Agassi is Heating Up Along With Weather

It was another typical day at the Australian, where Patrick McEnroe had to be treated for heat exhaustion after winning in muggy, 96-degree weather, players peeled themselves off the courts, and a few fans fainted before a midsummer hailstorm struck Thursday.

Andre Agassi got on and off long before any hail or rain or snow showed up. Flexing his muscles--literally once after a 126-mph serve--Agassi dispensed with French qualifier Jerome Golmard 6-2, 6-3, 6-1, in 93 minutes.

“In a Grand Slam, especially with the conditions like they are here,” Agassi said, “it’s just good to get through as efficiently as possible . . . It was hot out there, really humid, even at night.”

Agassi, the No. 2 seed, hasn’t been challenged yet in his first two straight-set matches, both against qualifiers. But he seems to be working his way into the form that gained him the U.S. Open last fall, and he’s being cheered by fans as if he were born in Melbourne.

“Tonight was the first glimpse of it feeling like a big tournament to me,” he said. “You get out there and the stadium’s full and people are excited to be there and they’re into it from start to finish. That’s the way it should be. It’s quite the opposite at the U.S. Open. The beers kick in, they enjoy themselves for a little while, but then you get up two sets and a break and the stadium starts clearing.”

Agassi smacked 10 aces, but it was one serve that didn’t count that brought oohs and ahhs from the crowd and a smile from Agassi. He was leading 4-0 and had just served his ninth ace, which registered 191 on the courtside radar display. That’s kilometers, not miles, and it translates to 119 mph--about 10 mph faster than his usual serves. On the next one, 202 lit up on the display--126 mph--but it was a tad long and didn’t count.

He pointed his racket at the 202, flexed his right bicep like a muscleman, and beamed to the crowd.

“Two-oh-two counted as far as I was concerned,” said Agassi, who recalled once hitting a serve at 132 mph in Key Biscayne, Fla. “I don’t know what that is in kilometers, but that (202) was the fastest I’ve ever seen in kilometers.”

If the heat gets worse, Agassi figures that, as a baseliner, he has an advantage over the serve-and-volleyers he’s likely to face, including perhaps No. 1 Pete Sampras in the final.

“Serve-and-volleyers are used to quick points,” Agassi said. “So when it’s hot, and all of a sudden they’re a bit more fatigued, it’s probably more of a curve ball for them because they’re not used to playing that way.”

The heat was on everyone’s mind, especially McEnroe’s after he spent 90 minutes recovering from his straight-sets victory over Jeremy Bates.

“It was the first real hot day we’ve had,” McEnroe said. “A lot of the guys are struggling a little with it. I don’t think I drank enough before the match because I had been kind of taking it for granted that it hadn’t been that hot. I wasn’t feeling what I call heatstroke, but I was feeling . . . not 100 percent.”

Mary Joe Fernandez, twice a finalist here, knows how hot it can get.

“You really notice the heat when your feet start burning,” she said after struggling to beat Linda Harvey-Wild 7-6 (7-5), 7-5. “I have played here when it’s been very, very hot. It was up there today. I try to focus on winning that first set. That, I think, was a mental edge. To come back, you suffer in these conditions.”

Czech Petr Korda, who next plays sun-loving Aaron Krickstein, had to play five sets and come back from two sets down against Lars Burgsmuller. Korda isn’t looking forward to another long match in the heat, nor is he pleased with the new rule to speed up play by serving within 20 seconds.

“I feel like I played in an oven,” Korda said. “Especially with the guy who is sitting on the chair forcing us during the changeover to keep the time, it’s quite difficult. You have to run between the points, especially in the fifth set. It was not a pleasure. I was happy that I could survive today.”