Pressure Stolle Faces to Win Is of Legendary Proportions

You want to talk about pressure?

Just have a word with Sandon Stolle of Australia.

Being the tennis-playing son of a revered figure in tennis is hard enough. But then he got on the phone with his father, Fred, earlier this week.

From his home in Florida, Fred Stolle told his 28-year-old son, “Win this one for Rod.”

That would be Aussie legend Rod Laver, who suffered a stroke Monday afternoon in Westwood during a TV interview. Laver remains in serious condition and there has been a slight improvement, doctors said.

Whether Sandon Stolle follows instructions remains to be seen but he took a step in that direction by beating fellow Aussie Andrew Ilie, 6-3, 7-6 [8-6], in a second-round match Thursday in the Mercedes-Benz Cup at UCLA.

“This one was for someone special,” Stolle said. “I guess I have to dedicate my victory to him.”

He said the words from his father, a friend and playing contemporary of Laver’s, increased the pressure.

“That’s a tough thing,” Sandon Stolle said. “It’s extra incentive and now it paid off. If I was on the losing end, I don’t think I would have told you about it.”

In today’s quarterfinals, he will play fifth-seeded Andre Agassi. Agassi defeated Jan-Michael Gambill, 6-4, 6-4, in another second-round match.

Agassi had lost to Gambill in their last meeting at Indian Wells in March. That loss halted Agassi’s 12-match winning streak.

“It’s kind of unwritten in the game of tennis that you don’t want to lose to somebody twice in a row,” Agassi said. “It feels like it gives them some sort of edge on you. I wouldn’t call it I grudge match. I would call it an important one.”

In another quarterfinal, top-seeded Patrick Rafter of Australia will play Justin Gimelstob, who advanced when eighth-seeded Vince Spadea retired because of exhaustion in the second set, with Gimelstob leading, 6-3, 3-0.

Spadea received a code violation for being coached just before he quit the match. He served underhanded, lost the last point and that was it.

Spadea called the code violation “ridiculous.”

He said he was tired from last week’s event at Washington and was not fit to play.

The rest of the daytime play was relatively routine. Rafter was pushed a bit in his second-round match before defeating Martin Damm of the Czech Republic, 6-3, 5-7, 6-1.

Among the quarterfinalists, Stolle’s presence is the biggest surprise. He is 265th in the world and lost in the final qualifying round. Monday, he was preparing to go to a tournament reception and was given an hour’s notice for an evening match against Taylor Dent after fourth-seeded Thomas Enqvist of Sweden withdrew because of an injured ankle.

Of his father, the Aussie Davis Cup star, he said, “He doesn’t like watching me play. He had enough of me. But he checks in with [his tennis friends] to see what’s going on. I have to be careful . . . because then I get the phone call.”

Usually, though, those phone calls aren’t accompanied by so much pressure.

Today’s Featured Matches

STADIUM COURT, NOON

* Michael Joyce

vs. Guillaume Raoux, France.

* Byron Black, Zimbabwe (7)

vs. Tim Henman, England (2).

* Sandon Stolle, Australia

vs. Andre Agassi (5).

*

STADIUM COURT, 7:30

* Justin Gimelstob vs.

Patrick Rafter, Australia (1).