Agassi Makes Quite a Racket in His First Loss of the Year

Andre Agassi lost his cool Saturday night. Then he lost his semifinal match at the Comcast U.S. Indoor at Philadelphia.

Agassi--who had won 37 of his last 39 matches and all 16 in 1995--lost to Sweden’s Thomas Enqvist, 7-6 (7-5), 5-7, 6-2.

Enqvist will face defending champion Michael Chang for the first time in today’s final. Chang routed Paul Haarhuis of the Netherlands, 6-2, 6-0, in 51 minutes.

At 3-2 in the first-set tiebreaker, chair umpire Carlos Bernardes gave Agassi a warning for ball abuse for hitting a ball about a foot wide of a linesman’s head. He later was fined $350 for the incident.

After the first-set tiebreaker, Agassi received a warning and a point penalty for tossing his racket from the baseline into a drink table behind Bernardes’ chair. Another fine: $500.

After the match, Agassi angrily threw his racket into the base of the umpire’s chair, eliciting boos from the crowd and a $1,500 fine.

“I’d be lying if I said I’d never lose my temper again,” Agassi said. “I don’t think umpires should get involved. They aren’t a part of the game. They should stay out of the match and keep score.”

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Michael Stich embarrassed archrival and German countryman Boris Becker, 6-0, 6-3, in 64 minutes in the semifinals of the Eurocard Open in Stuttgart, Germany. Stich will face Dutchman Richard Krajicek in the final. Krajicek was a 6-2, 6-3 winner over qualifier Martin Damm of the Czech Republic.

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UCLA defeated Arizona, 5-3, and will face top-ranked Georgia today in the final of the Women’s National Indoor Tennis Championship at Madison, Wis.

Golf

Tom Weiskopf and Jim Albus combined for the day’s best score, a seven-under-par 65, pacing a four-match sweep by the United States and a 6 1/2-1 1/2 lead over the International team in the Chrysler Cup senior golf competition in Acapulco, Mexico. The U.S. team needs to win only two of today’s eight singles matches to clinch its eighth title in 10 years. . . . Greg Norman and Vijay Singh led an Australia/Asia resurgence as the western Pacific team won six of eight matches against Southern Africa to pull within three points, 9 1/2-6 1/2, with nine singles matches remaining in the Alfred Dunhill Challenge in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Winter Sports

Kristian Ghedina of Italy won his second World Cup downhill of the winter, edging Norwegian Lasse Kjus in Whistler, Canada. Ghedina finished in 2:11:31. . . . Martina Ertl of Germany won a giant slalom in Maribor, Slovenia, for her third World Cup victory, finishing 15 hundredths of a second ahead of local favorite Spela Pretnar. . . . Bonnie Blair won her 500-meter race for the second day in a row at a speedskating World Cup meet in Inzell, Germany. Blair clocked 40.73 seconds for a close victory over Canada’s Susan Auch. . . . Andre Jungen of Switzerland, who finished second last year and third in 1993, won the Birkebeiner cross-country ski race in Hayward, Wis. Laura McCabe of Park City, Utah, won the women’s race.

Track and Field

Indoor record-holder Michael Johnson fought off a cold and ran a meet-record 45.56 seconds in the 400 meters in the eighth annual Mobil Invitational track and field meet in Fairfax, Va. Other winners included Henry Neal and Gwen Torrence in the men’s and women’s 60 meters, Jackie Joyner-Kersee in the women’s 60-meter hurdles and Maria Mutola, who won the women’s 800 with a 1995 world-best time of 1:59.41. . . . Six days after setting a world record in the 200 meters, world and Olympic champion Linford Christie suffered a rare home defeat to British countryman Darren Braithwaite in a photo finish in the 60-meter dash at an indoor meet in Birmingham, England. Braithwaite won in 6.54 seconds. World record-holder Moses Kiptanui was beaten soundly by Venuste Niyongabo, 21, of Burundi, who won the 3,000 meters in 7:37.82.

Miscellany

Kansas City Chief quarterback Joe Montana will retire soon and undergo knee surgery, the Contra Costa Times reported again in Martinez, Calif. The Chiefs again denied the report. . . . Former major leaguer Eric Yelding was sentenced to five years of probation for pointing a shotgun at an FBI agent in Mobile, Ala. Yelding, an infielder for the Houston Astros and Chicago Cubs, was also ordered to complete 300 hours of community service and pay a $5,000 fine.

All criminal charges against Sacramento King center Duane Causwell for spousal abuse have been suspended to permit Causwell to enter a domestic violence diversion program. Causwell, 26, had been charged in December with five misdemeanor counts in a confrontation he had with his wife, Leslie, at the couple’s home in Loomis, Calif.