Agassi Mowing Down the Aussies

They keep lining up Aussies for Andre Agassi, one by one, and the scores come out nearly identical.

One day, it’s Jason Stoltenberg in the final at Scottsdale, Ariz. Moving westward on Monday, it was Todd Woodbridge in the first round of the Newsweek Champions Cup here at Grand Champions Resort.

Woodbridge went down, 7-6 (7-3), 6-4. The only difference from the Stoltenberg match was that the tiebreaker was in the second set at Scottsdale.

So, who’s next on the barbie?

Patrick Rafter?

Well, that’s a possibility in the round of 16--assuming Agassi gets past 14th-seeded Sergi Bruguera of Spain and Rafter does the same against Wayne Ferreira of South Africa in the second round.

Although the score against Woodbridge was close, there wasn’t a great deal of drama on the court or in the packed stadium. Maybe everyone had a big lunch and got sleepy.

Agassi, on an 11-match winning streak, acknowledged the workmanlike atmosphere.

“The difference today just kind of turned out to be toughing it out,” he said. “Not much more to it. I don’t think it was a great match on my part or Todd’s.”

Agassi decided to play on Monday, even though he’d had two matches on Saturday and one on Sunday. Starting today would have meant playing six consecutive days if he reaches the final.

Even though the surface is the same as Scottsdale’s, Agassi said the conditions were different at Indian Wells.

“I’ve come from a smaller court, where the ball was traveling with a certain projection,” he said. “The depth perception was real tough for me out there. I wasn’t picking up the ball as easily. I felt like he was hitting 114-mph serves that I was lunging at.”

Lunging or not, Agassi now is 17-2, which is the best record on the tour in 1998. He hasn’t lost since the Australian Open. Monday, he talked about the approach of the younger generation on the tour, which, in part, forced him to reassess.

“More than anything, it was kind of two years of not quite being my best and realizing that there are a lot of young guys, guys that grew up watching me,” Agassi said. “You know, ball boy for me, maybe. Then saying, ‘I don’t want to do this if this is how I’m going to do it anymore.’ ”

Three seeded players exited in the first round. Magnus Norman beat ninth-seeded Alex Corretja, 7-5, 6-3; Nicolas Kiefer defeated No. 10 Gustavo Kuerten and his bright yellow shoes, 6-4, 6-7 (4-7), 6-2, and Albert Costa beat No. 13 Felix Mantilla, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3.

A couple of mild upsets occurred on the women’s side in the third round. No. 15 Natasha Zvereva beat No. 6 Irina Spirlea--a finalist in this tournament last year--6-3, 7-5, and Sandra Cacic defeated No. 9 Sandrine Testud, 4-6, 7-6 (7-3), 7-6 (7-3).

Kuerten, the French Open champion, said he has been troubled by lower back problems and needed an injury timeout in his match. Still, he said he plans to play at Key Biscayne, Fla., later this month.

“I had no pleasure to play in this pain,” he said.

One player who said he is pain-free is Thomas Muster, a semifinalist here last year. Last week, a Davis Cup doctor in Austria caused a stir when he suggested that Muster should retire.

“I think this guy [the doctor] wanted the spotlight on him probably,” Muster said, smiling. “Maybe some people wish that I retire, but this is unfortunately not going to happen yet for them. I’m feeling pretty comfortable. I haven’t played much since November, that’s true. But not because of injuries, but because I felt like staying home.”