Agassi’s Game, Fan Interest Perking Up

As the sport of tennis continues to breathe a huge sigh of relief, the Andre Agassi Comeback Tour keeps marching on.

Agassi, whose Hollywood game and personality are badly needed to spice up a mostly vanilla tour, won his 12th consecutive ATP Tour match Wednesday, beating 14th-seeded Spaniard Sergi Bruguera, 6-2, 6-4, at the Newsweek Champions Cup.

With each Agassi victory, you can almost hear the giant exhalation coming from the offices of the U.S. Tennis Assn. in New York and the ATP in Ponte Vedra, Fla. Suddenly, somebody up there likes tennis again. Probably a high-ranking angel with a big first serve.

During a day session in which Jim Courier, the 27-year-old former No. 1 player making a little comeback charge of his own, provided the most drama by rallying from a 5-3 deficit in the third set to beat fifth-seeded Jonas Bjorkman of Sweden, 4-6, 6-1, 7-6 (7-4), Agassi and women’s phenom Venus Williams generated the biggest buzz among the fans.

The Stadium court was packed for Agassi, and virtually all of those 11,500 who bought tickets for the Stadium stayed there to watch Agassi, rather than wandering out to the back courts. And he gave them the kind of tennis they had come to expect from a player who, when playing well, can dominate from the baseline like no other.

His opponent, Bruguera, has won the French Open twice, in 1993 and ‘94, and was runner-up on the Roland Garros clay last year. He was also Agassi’s opponent in the gold-medal match of the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, and that match went about like Wednesday’s. Agassi took the ball early, attacked at all times and had Bruguera nearly backed up against the stadium wall on many points.

Bruguera, no slouch on any surface, was clearly overmatched.

“It’s tough conditions out here for Sergi, against me on hard courts,” Agassi said. “It’s not ideal for him.”

Not too long ago, a tennis court of any kind, any surface, was a tough condition for Agassi, who seemed to go away mentally in 1997. He didn’t win a tournament, played in only 24 matches and got bounced out of the U.S. Open in the fourth round after showing signs of life. The bottom came when his ranking plunged to No. 141 in November, forcing him to play in satellite tour events in Las Vegas and Burbank to gather tour points.

And the biggest indignity of all? He didn’t even win the satellite event in Las Vegas, his hometown.

Now, he’s back, bouncing along on the strength of tournament wins at San Jose and Scottsdale and welcoming, rather than dreading, the challenges ahead, such as his next match, in the round of 16, against Patrick Rafter. Rafter not only knocked Agassi out of the U.S. Open last year, he went on to win it.

When asked if he had learned something from the U.S. Open match against Rafter that he could use this time, Agassi joked, “Yes, I learned that I needed to lose 15 pounds.”

Always at his showman’s best when he is playing well and winning, Agassi punctuated his victory over Bruguera with a 122-mph ace on match point.

Williams, who attracts a crowd here just by going to the concession stand, was not to be outdone by Agassi in showmanship. In her 6-1, 6-3 rout of Joanette Kruger of South Africa in the State Farm Evert Cup, she finished with a 118-mph ace on match point.

That set the stage for a semifinal with huge fan appeal, Williams versus No. 1 Martina Hingis, who beat former Wimbledon champion Conchita Martinez, 6-1, 7-5, in the night session. That semifinal will be Friday, the winner matching up in Saturday’s final against the Lindsay Davenport-Steffi Graf winner tonight.

Williams was asked about Hingis, Graf and Davenport on Wednesday and summed up the current highly competitive situation well.

“We’ve all been working hard to make women’s tennis better,” she said.

And succeeding.

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Today’s Featured Matches

STADIUM COURT (10 a.m)

* Marcelo Rios, Chile, vs. Nicolas Kiefer, Germany.

* Andre Agassi vs. Patrick Rafter, Australia.

* Jim Courier vs. Jan-Michael Gambill.

* Tommy Haas, Germany, vs. Petr Korda, Czech Republic.

STADIUM COURT (6:30 p.m)

* Steffi Graf, Germany, vs. Lindsay Davenport.

* Pete Sampras vs. Thomas Muster, Austria.

CLUBHOUSE COURT (10 a.m.)

* Bohdan Ulihrach, Czech Republic, vs. Thomas Enqvist, Sweden.

* Carlos Moya, Spain, vs. Greg Rusedski, England.