Is Andre Still a Giant Draw?

The Los Angeles Open Tennis Tournament, for years known as the Pacific Southwest and most recently as the Infiniti Open, caught a nice break Friday. In the world of tennis, it was the equivalent of the ball ticking the net cord on match point and dropping on your opponent’s side.

Andre Agassi is coming.

The event, which has struggled through various sponsors, date shifts and identity crises in the last decade or so, now has something it can flash on the marquee.

When play begins next week at the UCLA Tennis Center, the attraction has a chance to match the hype.

Agassi will participate in a charity event Monday night, then crank it up for real in a first-round match Tuesday night. Get your tickets now, before the groupies find the box office.

The very fact that the appearance of Agassi would make that much difference to a tournament says volumes about Agassi and the current state of tennis.

At the moment, Agassi is a stumpy, balding, 27-year-old from Las Vegas who is struggling to keep his ranking in the top 40 in the world. He will play in the L.A. event for two reasons:

* He lost in the second round of a tournament in Washington on Wednesday to Doug Flach, who is ranked No. 176 in the world and whose main claim to fame is that he is Ken’s brother. That loss put Agassi’s preparation for a run at the U.S. Open title behind schedule, so he will need the additional match or matches available in Los Angeles.

* Money. The L.A. event is designed as a World Series level tournament on the ATP Tour, meaning it is a couple of notches below a Grand Slam and a notch below Super Nine events such as the Newsweek Champions Cup in the spring at Indian Wells. Grand Slams and Super Nines do not and cannot under the rules pay appearance money. World Series events can, do and must. So Agassi got some cash to merely show, as did some of the other top players here. Pre-event publicity says that “total player compensation” will be nearly $1 million. In actuality, $328,000 will be doled out as prize money and about $650,000 simply for being there.

Agassi won’t be anywhere near the best player in the field. He is seeded seventh, behind (in order) Goran Ivanisevic, Thomas Enqvist, Mark Philippoussis, Richard Krajicek, Patrick Rafter and Jim Courier.

And the draw, held Friday at a luncheon at the L.A. Athletic Club, wasn’t especially kind to him. His first-round match will be against Justin Gimelstob, who a year ago won the NCAA doubles title while a UCLA player and who beat French Open champion Gustavo Kuerten at Wimbledon. Gimelstob, one of a score of new faces trying to make the big breakthrough, will get his shot at Agassi on a UCLA court that was, for two years, his home. In addition, Gimelstob has been getting extra help from Brad Gilbert, who happens to be Agassi’s coach too.

Also, Agassi drew into the tough side of the bracket, the same side as top-seeded Ivanisevic, ’96 Wimbledon champion Krajicek and former No. 1 player Courier.

All that being said, Agassi will be the big show, especially if he lasts past Gimelstob and a likely second-round rematch with Flach (Doug, not Ken).

He brings to the game a pizazz that was there with John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors and only a handful of others. He is colorful, controversial, moody, friendly, profane and married to Brooke Shields.

He is predictably unpredictable. When he is good, he is very good. But when he is bad, he is awful.

A year ago, he took two-time French Open champion Sergi Bruguera and dismantled him in the Olympic final in Atlanta. His ground strokes were not only accurate, but lethal.

Then he went away, apparently in mind and body, skipping the Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon.

And this week, he lost to Doug Flach, leaving him with a season record of 6-7 going into Tuesday night’s match.

Yet the road back for Agassi may very well start at UCLA. He is certainly capable.

He has won Wimbledon, the Australian Open and the U.S. Open. He has been in four other Grand Slam finals and has been No. 1 in the world. He has been the best and most loyal U.S. Davis Cup player since McEnroe. And when he is playing well, his game and his style are magic, a charisma that attracts grannies as well as groupies.

Even the other players recognize this.

Rafter called Agassi’s opener against Gimelstob “a great popcorn match,” meaning everybody will want to buy a box and settle into the stands to watch. And Philippoussis, tall, dark, handsome and quite familiar with the groupie syndrome, said of Agassi’s presence here, “This means a lot to tennis, even if he is not playing at his best level now. He has that charm out there. The crowd enjoys him.”

Tennis Notes

Numbers that were used for Friday’s pairing sheet were drawn out of a cup that was the 1947 Wimbledon trophy. That was won by Jack Kramer, whose son, Bob, is the tournament director. Jack Kramer will turn 76 on Aug. 1. . . . A special serving show will be put on Monday night during the annual “Evening at the Net” charity benefit. Four of the biggest servers in the game--Goran Ivanisevic, Thomas Enqvist, Mark Philippoussis and Richard Krajicek--will have their serves timed. Then, they will be timed using wood rackets. . . . The tournament’s past champion honoree this year is Pancho Segura.