Agassi Has to Step Up to Martin’s Level to Get Narrow Victory

The gap between Andre Agassi and Todd Martin in world tennis rankings is 16 spots. Thursday, in a third-round match at the Newsweek Champions Cup here, the gap was more like inches.

It took No. 3 Agassi two tiebreakers and 2 hours 19 minutes to get past No. 19 Martin and into the quarterfinals, where he faces the prospect of another epic struggle with Michael Chang tonight.

The score was 7-6 (11-9), 2-6, 7-6 (7-1), and the match, in front of a packed stadium of 11,500 on a partly cloudy and warmly comfortable desert day, featured perhaps the best tennis to date of this 10-day combined men’s and women’s event.

“When you’ve got guys like me and Todd, who hit with our kind of aggressiveness, that means there is some really good tennis going on,” Agassi said. “It was tough to have a loser out there.”

Other men advancing to the quarterfinals included Pete Sampras, currently No. 2, who handled a pesky Michael Joyce, the Los Angeles player whose quickness and desire weren’t enough against Sampras’ power, 6-3, 6-4; Goran Ivanisevic, who made his first advance into the quarterfinals of this tournament after six previous years of failure, with a 6-4, 7-5 win over Jordi Burillo; Wayne Ferreira, the South African who won last week’s tournament at Scottsdale and handled Jim Courier with surprising ease, 6-4, 6-4; and Chang, who beat Arnaud Boetsch, 6-1, 6-3.

In the women’s State Farm Evert Cup, Steffi Graf got her best test to date, struggling mightily to get past Lindsay Davenport in the night match, 6-7 (8-6), 7-6 (7-3), 6-4, to gain Saturday’s final in her first tournament since foot surgery in November. The match lasted 2 hours 44 minutes. Graf will play the winner of today’s match between second-seeded Conchita Martinez and fourth-seeded Kimiko Date.

Martin held three set points against Agassi in the first-set tiebreaker, and served for the third set at 6-5. But Agassi returned well, engaged Martin in a baseline rally, then got it to 6-6 when Martin’s backhand shot just caught the top of the tape with Agassi charging forward for a ball he might not have reached had it trickled over.

“I just missed on a shot that I would have won the set on,” Martin said.

Martin, who served 11 aces and no double faults and won four more points than Agassi, 113 to 109, increased the tempo of his serve about 5 mph in the second set and blew Agassi away.

And he kept the roll going by breaking Agassi in the first game of the third set. But Agassi, needing to step it up to Martin’s level, did exactly that by breaking back with a huge forehand down the line.

The pair then slugged it out the rest of the way to the tiebreaker, where, once again, Agassi was inches better than Martin.

On the first point, Martin made a good approach, then let Agassi’s backhand passing shot down the line float past him. The ball looked like it was going out, but settled into the corner. Two points later, with Martin serving. Agassi stepped around a 108-mph first serve that was right into his body and slapped it cross court past a charging Martin for a forehand winner. On the next point, Martin hit a rocket backhand that was so close to the sideline that the scoreboard actually listed it temporarily as a point for Martin.

“I was right on the line,” Agassi said, “and I mean, had they called it good, I would have wanted to complain about it, but it was just too close.”

With Thomas Muster, the current No. 1 player, already out of the tournament, the scramble for No. 1 on the men’s computer got very close. Sampras would take back the top spot if he reaches the semifinals and Agassi doesn’t win the tournament. Agassi would become No. 1 again if he wins here and Sampras loses his quarterfinal match. Muster would stay on top if Sampras loses in the quarterfinals and Agassi does not win the tournament.

Tennis Notes

The Spanish Costas, Carlos and Alberto, squared off against each other to start the day and Carlos, ranked 38th, beat Alberto, ranked 15th, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4. They are not related. . . . Romanian Adrian Voinea, who upset Thomas Muster in the second round, had to default midway through the second set against Marcelo Rios. Voinea has a torn shoulder muscle. . . . The colorful Jensen brothers, Luke and Murphy, lost a thriller in men’s doubles to Joshua Eagle and Andrew Florent, saving half a dozen match points in a third-set tiebreaker but eventually losing, 16-14. . . . Goran Ivanisevic’s previous tournament record at Indian Wells: lost in first round in 1989; lost in second round after first-round byes in ‘91, ‘92, ’93 and ’94 and lost in third round in 1990. In 1995? He didn’t enter. . . . Andre Agassi, who is engaged to actress Brooke Shields, was asked in his news conference Thursday what his advice would be for somebody preparing to be married. “Make sure you really want to do it,” he said.

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Today’s Matches

EVERT CUP

* Kimiko Date vs. Conchita Martinez

CHAMPIONS CUP

* Carlos Costa vs. Goran Ivanisevic

* Pete Sampras vs. Paul Haarhuis

* Wayne Ferreira vs. Marcelo Rios

* Michael Chang vs. Andre Agassi (night)