Agassi Stirs Up an Old Rivalry

Even as an 8-year-old, Jeff Tarango was beating the other boys and making them cry.

Even Andre Agassi.

Rivals as juniors, they have traveled separate paths. Agassi made his name by winning at Wimbledon. Tarango made his name by running out of Wimbledon in protest in 1995.

Still, their lives intersect every now and then. Agassi had won all six of their previous meetings on the ATP Tour, and made it seven consecutive victories Thursday, beating Tarango, 6-4, 6-3, in the quarterfinals at the Lipton Championships.

“It was just kind of yeoman, hard hat, lunch pail, go to work, get the job done,” Agassi said of the match. “I don’t think great tennis was necessary today. I don’t think Jeff was playing great. I wasn’t.”

Agassi, trying to win his third tournament in his last four events, will play No. 8-seeded Alex Corretja of Spain in the semifinals tonight. Corretja ended the surprising run of American qualifier Steve Campbell, winning, 6-3, 6-1.

In the other semifinal, Chile’s Marcelo Rios faces Tim Henman of England. If he wins two more matches, Rios will end the 102-week reign of Pete Sampras at No. 1 in the world and could spark the largest celebration in Chile, well, at least since it qualified for soccer’s upcoming World Cup.

Tarango, for one, thinks Rios is playing the best tennis on the tour. Though Agassi is seeded 29th here and ranked 31st, Tarango said Agassi would be third or fourth if the rankings were based on current performance.

“I think he [Agassi] will win here,” said Tarango, who is ranked 61st. “He’s playing great. If he wins here [on hard courts], that’s a great accomplishment. I’d like to see what his dedication is on the clay. But he might just forgo that and wait for grass. Who knows?”

Tarango has defeated Agassi once--in their junior days--and they differ on the details. It was the first time they ever played, in 1977, at a tournament in San Diego. Agassi was 7, Tarango 8.

“I think he got overruled on match point and he started crying,” Tarango said. “He said that I made him cry. I didn’t make him cry. He forgets he got overruled on match point.”

Agassi disagreed.

“It was the first loss I ever had,” he said. “Third-set tiebreaker, nine-point tiebreaker back then, 4-4, winner take all. I hit a backhand cross-court for nearly a cold winner. Got all pumped up. Started walking to the net.

“It kind of hit him [Tarango] walking to the net, ‘If I call this out. It’s my match.’ He went like this, put his finger up [signaling out] and I started crying.”

Even though it was more than 20 years ago, Agassi still remembered how long it took for him to get revenge.

“We played a few weeks later,” he said. “Another Southern California tournament. I beat him, 6-0, 7-6.”

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Sixteen-year-old Anna Kournikova of Russia survived a rocky first set--in which her serve was broken four consecutive times--to defeat No. 8-ranked Arantxa Sanchez Vicario of Spain, 3-6, 6-1, 6-3, in the other women’s semifinal Thursday.

For the 25th-ranked Kournikova, who will play Venus Williams on Saturday, it will be her first final on the WTA Tour. She reached the Wimbledon semifinals in 1997, losing to Martina Hingis.

Before Lipton, 1998 had been inauspicious for Kournikova. Her best result was a semifinal finish at Hanover, Germany, and she lost in the round of 16 to Conchita Martinez at Indian Wells, Calif.

Here, Kournikova has found her range, beating Monica Seles, Martinez and No. 2-ranked Lindsay Davenport in succession before playing Sanchez Vicario.

Sanchez Vicario, who had been sidelined since the Australian Open because of a stress fracture in her left leg, started sharply against Kournikova but could not keep up with the youngster’s baseline power, losing 12 of the last 16 games.

“I’ve probably shown everybody that I can play--it’s not just like it happened,” Kournikova said.