Agassi Respectfully Takes Care of Edberg : U.S. Open: Third-round match has important feel, but it’s over quickly for 19th-ranked Swede.

There is much about the casual elegance of Stefan Edberg that snaps a person’s manners to attention. His regal bearing commands respect, although the self-effacing Swede would never ask for such deference. But Edberg everywhere is given the sort of consideration champions are due.

Even as Andre Agassi defeated the 19th-ranked Swede, 6-4, 6-3, 6-1, Saturday in the third round of the U.S. Open, he showed Edberg the respect that only players can show to their peers. He won, but--against the player Agassi likes to call Eddie --he took little joy in it.

Agassi reveres his sport’s history and understands Edberg’s place in it. This U.S. Open is Edberg’s 50th consecutive Grand Slam tournament. He has not missed a Grand Slam event since he made his debut at Wimbledon in 1983 and has won six titles, twice here.

Edberg has moved smoothly through a career that has as its hallmarks grace, sportsmanship and consistency. Agassi and others cringe to see Edberg, 29, nearing the end of that career and thrown into the draw as an unseeded player. But married, with a family, Edberg isn’t as driven to compete as his bachelor friends.

“When somebody has an accomplished career like Stefan, it is time to back off a little bit and realize that maybe the guy’s priorities are not the same,” Agassi said. “If he loses one ounce of motivation, that is enough to justify his ranking.

“I mean, it’s no big deal. He can still put together great matches. He hasn’t lost so much on any level that he couldn’t turn it around and compete with the best of them again. It is just a question if you are going to do it or not, and that has to come from way down deep. And, you know, if I had some beautiful children like he has, I’m not sure I would be thinking about tennis a whole lot.”

It was unusual to see two such players meet in the third round. Yet a full stadium court crowd at the National Tennis Center relished the opportunity to see a late-round caliber match so early in the tournament.

“When I walked in I felt like it was a semifinal or final,” Edberg said. “It was a tremendous crowd and it is not very often, early like this, that you play in front of a crowd like that.”

Edberg got in only 53% of his first serves, an unfortunate failing for him. Lacking a strong first serve, Edberg has little opportunity to get to net. Even when he did get in, he merely provided the top-seeded Agassi a target for his passing shots.

“As a serve and volleyer, I need to be very, very sharp, serving very well,” Edberg said. “I didn’t particularly serve well enough today, and that let me down a little bit because that was the only chance I had.”

In the third set, when Edberg held serve for the only time, the crowd cheered, but Edberg shook his head as if he did not want the fans’ emotional charity.

Agassi offered his own act of kindness after the match, when he waited while Edberg finished signing autographs so that the players could walk off the court together.

Edberg might have other priorities, but tennis is still among them.

“I think getting back into the top five is going to be very difficult,” Edberg said. “If I can get back into the top 10, that would be my first goal. Those top five players--they are at another level.

“There is still tennis left in me, I believe so. I have had a bad spell, but there is a way out of it. I’ve got to keep working. That is all I can do.”

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U.S. Open Notes

Vince Spadea, ranked No. 80, upset seventh-seeded Russian Yevgeny Kafelnikov, 6-2, 6-4, 6-4, in the third round in the biggest victory of the promising USTA development program player’s three-year career. Spadea, 21, who had never gone beyond the third round in any Grand Slam appearance, beat Kafelnikov at his own baseline game. . . . Zina Garrison Jackson continued to advance, riding an emotional wave of affection from fans and players. She defeated Nicole Arendt, 6-0, 7-6 (7-3), to move into the fourth round. Since Garrison Jackson, 31, decided not to retire this season, she said she has been hearing nothing but kind words from other players.