Agassi-Shields Love Match Just Might Be Boon to Both

Andre Agassi and actress Brooke Shields find themselves married after last weekend’s ceremony at Monterey, Calif. Both the bride and groom are fashioning career surges. Agassi is trying to raise his ranking above its current No. 26, and Shields’ TV sitcom, “Suddenly Susan,” has been picked up for another season.

Although his new marital state will no doubt yield bliss for Agassi, it raises the question of how he, and other tennis players, manage both marriage and career. Statistics show that few even try. No top-10 player on either tour is married. Among the women, only three players in the top 30 are married. Among the men, six in the top 30.

Athletes are notoriously, and necessarily, self-centered. Yet players handle the demands of a relationship differently. Agassi, who is capable of intense but limited focus, may experience an

adjustment, finding time for both his career and marriage.

Others seem to roll along with little change, no matter their personal situations. Pete Sampras, for instance, won the last Grand Slam tournament last season, the U.S. Open, while still in a long-term relationship. He won the first Grand Slam tournament in January, the Australian Open, after that relationship had ended.

Arantxa Sanchez Vicario has suffered romance’s double edge. Her involvement with fellow Spaniard Juan Vehils has transformed her from a single-minded tennis workhorse into a happier, more balanced person.

But Sanchez Vicario’s tennis has suffered. As with Agassi, who is to say what’s the appropriate emphasis? Won’t a happy player become a better player?

Not always.

Is there anything wrong with that?

Nope.

LET’S PLAY CLAY

The fledgling European clay-court season sputtered to a start at Monte Carlo when Sampras, Thomas Muster and Boris Becker all lost in their opening matches. It makes for an interesting lead-in to both the French Open next month and to the end-of-the-year rankings.

Muster never likes to lose, especially on clay, but the loss is a blow to him in a another way. He has been playing extremely well on hard courts, having won two titles already this year. He began the season with a 21-3 record. The points he gained from those unexpected victories, added to the expected mass of points Muster usually picks up in the clay-court season, would have put him in a strong position to take over No. 1 at year’s end.

Sampras’ wrist injury brightened that scenario for Muster, if only momentarily.

Moving into the void are the Spaniards, who continue their surge on the men’s tour. In the first two clay-court tournaments of the year, Spanish players filled all the semifinal spots with eight players.

Sampras had taken a wild card into Monte Carlo. He now will return to his usual clay schedule, meaning he’s avoiding the surface as much as possible. Two years ago, Sampras altered his routine by adding more tournaments so he could prepare more thoroughly for the French Open, the only Grand Slam tournament he has not won. That experiment earned him a first-round loss.

Sampras returned last season to his former schedule and, despite a horrible draw and the death of his coach, Tim Gullikson, made it to the semifinals of the French. He’s sticking to the same schedule this year.

Saturday is the anniversary of Gullikson’s death.

NO HORSE SENSE

A horse finally managed to do what no player on the WTA Tour has been able to do this year--get the better of Martina Hingis. The No. 1-ranked Hingis fell from her horse this week, while riding near her home in Switzerland.

Hingis said she got up and continued riding but awoke the next day with swelling in her left knee. Doctors found a slight ligament tear that will postpone the beginning of her clay-court season.

Much has been made of Hingis’ refreshing training regime--skiing, roller-blading, basketball and soccer. And horseback riding. At most tour stops, the 16-year-old Hingis tries to ride.

At the Australian Open, which she won, she was thrown from her mount and got back up, uninjured. After last year’s U.S. Open, Hingis was taken to Belmont Park to meet a fellow champion, Cigar. The thoroughbred nipped at the teenager when she got close.

An accomplished horsewoman and jumper, Hingis has always downplayed the potential for injury.

In her love of horses, she has something in common with Maureen Connolly, the former champion Hingis is so often compared to. “Little Mo,” like Hingis, was a small but ferocious baseline player who seldom lost.

Connolly’s career was cut short by an accident. While horseback riding, she was struck by a truck and suffered a career-ending leg injury.

TIGER WHO?

A quiz, amid the focus on the much-deserved success of Tiger Woods.

Question: Which person in an individual professional sport--including tennis, golf, auto racing, figure skating, skiing, volleyball and bowling--has earned the most prize money this year?

Answer: Hingis, who has made $1,225,395. No. 2 is Steve Elkington of the PGA Tour at $1,059,070. Woods is third with $966,350.

DROP SHOTS

The U.S. Davis Cup semifinals in September against Australia appear to be headed to either Washington or Indianapolis, venues with slow hard courts. The choice of surface seems to indicate that Sampras may play. The Americans had given some thought to playing on clay, but after Mark Philippoussis beat Jim Courier in straight sets at a clay-court tournament last week, hard courts seem a better idea. . . . Good news is that the All England Club announced a 5.7% increase in prize money over Wimbledon’s 1996 total. Bad news is that Wimbledon officials still refuse to offer equal prize money for men and women.

Michael Chang won his 500th match, a feat equaled by only three other active players: Becker, Sampras and Muster. . . . Shocking news from Atlanta: John McEnroe is being sued by a couple who allege McEnroe was belligerent, uncooperative, used profanity and tried to hit them during an exhibition event there in February. . . . The Nuveen Tour, tennis’ over-35 circuit, returns to Los Angeles Thursday through May 5 at Riviera Country Club. Jimmy Connors and Andres Gomez lead a 12-player field.