Agassi Beaten to the Draw

It was billed as “High Noon” in the desert, with tennis gunslingers Mark Philippoussis, the biggest server in the sport, trying to outdraw Andre Agassi, the biggest returner.

And when the first-round match of the Newsweek Champions Cup tournament ended here Tuesday, Philippoussis, lacking only the Gary Cooper drawl, had gunned down the 10th-seeded Agassi’s comeback hopes, 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (7-5).

Philippoussis, the 20-year-old Australian who got almost as much attention last week for hitting the fastest serve on the tour at 142 mph as he did for winning the ATP event in Scottsdale, Ariz., shot 23 aces at Agassi in the 1-hour 40-minute match. And many of those were in the 130-135 mph range.

Agassi, asked afterward the obvious question, “What is it like to play against a bullet serve?” said, tongue in cheek, “It’s not difficult to get your racket on it.”

Returning it, in the court, with enough pace on it to allow yourself to be competitive in the point, is another matter.

Perhaps Philippoussis gave the best measure of his approach to his service games on set point of the first set. He hit his first serve 135 mph but was inches long. Then he hit his second at 124, forcing Agassi into a set-ending error.

“[His serve] is certainly the best part of his game,” Agassi said, “I had my looks at break points, though.”

Looks? More like glances.

Philippoussis, whose serve is a lot bigger than his vocabulary, was surprisingly defensive in discussing his explosive offensive weapon.

“I have always had a big serve,” he said. “That is just one of my weapons, probably the biggest weapon. I mean, I can hit winners on my forehand and on my backhand. I can come in, I can volley. What else do you want me to say?”

The victory, Philippoussis’ sixth in succession, was probably his second-biggest but also probably a more valuable learning experience than his biggest.

That was his 1996 victory over Pete Sampras in the Australian Open. Philippoussis said he was so excited by it that he lost his focus for a while.

“It was hard when I beat Pete,” he said. “I was up on Cloud 9 for maybe two weeks. I can’t think of this one that way.”

He said he has to think of this as just another victory, just another tournament, just another day at the office, no matter how unrealistic it is to treat a triumph over a former No. 1 player that way.

As for that former No. 1 player, Agassi said the climb back may not be as long or as hard as it looks, even though Tuesday’s match was only his seventh of the year, even though his injured ankle is still healing and even though he has a four-match losing streak.

“I feel like I’m making obviously big improvements,” he said. “Trust me.”

And trust that Philippoussis will continue to attract attention, and huge crowds similar to the one on stadium court at the Hyatt Grand Champions, just as long as the ATP keeps the speed gun turned on and the kid from Australia keeps his holster full of lightning.