Agassi Takes Rubber Match With Sampras : Tennis: No. 2-ranked player defeats No. 1 in Round 3 of blossoming rivalry between two.

Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi have discovered that this rivalry business can be quite the cottage industry.

There is a commercial, courtesy of their mutual shoe company. There are, of course, T-shirts. The only thing the race for tennis’ No. 1 ranking lacks is a catchy theme, although Sampras has offered the visually incongruent image of heavyweight boxers slugging it out.

Their road show closed at its third stop Sunday, with Agassi taking his turn as the winner. He defeated Sampras in the final of the Lipton Championships, 3-6, 6-2, 7-6 (7-3), and paid homage to their battle for supremacy, which one overheated reporter here called “the biggest individual rivalry in all of sports.”

The battle for No. 1 has been waged since January. Agassi won their first meeting of the season, in the final of the Australian Open, then Sampras responded by beating Agassi in the final at Indian Wells two weeks ago.

Sampras will remain No. 1, his 100th consecutive week on top, although Agassi has narrowed the gap on the computer to 227 points.

For at least as long as the two are Nos. 1 and 2, it seems their paths will cross, and that intersection will be, as Sampras says, “for the good of the game.”

Sampras won here last year, in part because of a sporting gesture by Agassi. Sampras awoke the day of the final to find himself in intestinal distress, and Agassi offered to postpone the start of the match for 1 1/2 hours to accommodate him.

If Sampras seemed sick on Sunday, it was only after the match, which he seemed to have well in hand early on.

The turning point came with Agassi serving at 2-2 in the second set, when Sampras had three break points and failed to convert. After that, Agassi broke Sampras at love and held his own serve at love. Then in the next game, Sampras ignominiously double faulted to lose the set.

Agassi held in the first game of the third set and ran off 19 consecutive points against Sampras, something neither player could ever remember happening.

“The whole match turned around,” Sampras said. “If I could have converted there and just kept that kind of momentum. . . . but I didn’t. I just was not aggressive enough on those break points and waited for him to miss. He is not going to miss.

“I was playing really well in the first set and (until) the middle of the second. Basically, he just steam-rolled me for about three or four games. Before I knew it, it was one set all. Looking back, it just came down to one or two points and he got them today.”

The match exposed a rare Sampras weakness. His game is predicated on his serve, and when he is not serving well, the foundation of his attack crumbles. Sampras got in only 47% of his first serves on Sunday, which caused a two-pronged problem for him.

First, he couldn’t follow his second serve to the net so he was forced to remain at the baseline--not the most effective spot for him. Second, Agassi was able to get a good look at Sampras’ second serve, which allowed him to bring out his big weapon. With every failed first serve, Agassi responded with returns that put him on the offensive.

“It makes it very tough to play Andre when you are not serving well,” Sampras said. “I just figured, stay back and hopefully beat him from the backcourt. I can’t do that for a whole match. He does that as well as anyone.”

Each player held serve in the third set as the afternoon heat began to beat down and a hot wind swirled.

When the match went to a tiebreaker, Sampras had to gulp--his record in tiebreakers this year was 1-8, Agassi’s 5-1.

Each player held serve until Sampras sent a volley beyond the baseline for a 4-2 Agassi lead. Sampras managed to win only one other point and smacked a backhand wide down the line to give Agassi the match.

The players will suspend their rivalry for this week’s Davis Cup match against Italy.

“Pete is not my enemy, you know,” Agassi said. “He is someone I have a lot of respect for on a lot of levels. We can’t look at the other one as if he was interfering with what we want. The other person is helping create what it is we are playing for.”

In fact, both players flew to New York on Agassi’s jet Sunday night, and hoped to take in another successful, long-running road show, the Broadway musical “Grease,” starring Agassi’s girlfriend, Brooke Shields.