This One Turns Men Into Boys

And now, for the boys’ 12-and-under event . . .

Junior tennis invaded the men’s draw of the U.S. Open on Monday, taking over the Andre Agassi-Karol Kucera fourth-round match. It turned two adults into a couple of kids by the end of the third set at the National Tennis Center.

You almost expected the 28-year-old Agassi to stick out his tongue at the 24-year-old Slovak, and say something like “He started it” to chair umpire Norm Chryst. Even Agassi’s coach, Brad Gilbert, was spotted courtside, shaking his head in apparent embarrassment.

And guess what?

They get to play some more today. The third and final rain delay on Monday halted play for the evening at 9:35 EDT. Kucera won the first two sets, 6-3, 6-3. Down a service break in the third, Agassi rallied to win it, 7-6, after surviving the tiebreaker, 7-5. When the rains came again, Agassi led in the fourth, 3-0.

By then, Kucera seemed totally thrown off by the display of child’s play. It started when Agassi became bothered by Kucera’s chronic habit of tossing the ball in the air, then catching the errant toss and starting over.

It is a problem weekend players can understand. Patrick Rafter of Australia, the defending U.S. Open champion, often does the same thing, saying, “Sorry, mate,” when his toss goes astray. However, Kucera kept doing it. And he had to catch the ball because his toss was all over the place, drifting perilously off target.

With Kucera leading in the fourth, 4-2, but facing break point, Agassi held up his hand, signaling that he was not ready. Kucera most likely did not see him and served, and Agassi did not play the return.

Kucera strolled up to Chryst, saying: “I’m not doing this on purpose.”

Said Chryst: “I know you are not.”

Then Agassi broke him, hitting a sharp forehand cross-court return. On his next service game, Agassi started to imitate Kucera, catching his own service toss several times. Agassi won the game, tying the set at 4-4.

His next tactic was to hit high, floating moonballs in the next game. The speed of the shots made the Conchita Martinez-Amanda Coetzer match look hard-hitting. Gilbert, sitting with Agassi’s entourage in the friends’ box, shook his head after one particularly lame baseline exchange.

Perhaps Agassi was taking a page out of Gilbert’s book, “Winning Ugly.” Certainly, the ninth-seeded Kucera managed to unnerve Agassi through two and a half sets. Kucera, a talented baseliner coached by 1986 U.S. Open finalist Miloslav Mecir, is a dangerous player capable of big upsets. He defeated Pete Sampras at the Australian Open this year.

Which is why Sampras was not automatically expecting to face the eighth-seeded Agassi in a marquee quarterfinal Wednesday. Sampras was the only player to complete his fourth-round match on Monday, defeating 18-year-old Russian prodigy Marat Safin, 6-4, 6-3, 6-2.

“Kucera can play some--he beat me in Australia,” Sampras said. “Andre is certainly playing great tennis. From the fans’ point of view and from the media, how Andre and I play, the atmosphere and the electricity of this place would be phenomenal.

“I’m sure they’ll put us on at night. It’s going to be a packed house. You haven’t seen this place packed too often this past week, unfortunately.

“But it’s the arena, it’s the stage. When I play Andre or if I play [Boris] Becker, it certainly brings that out.”

Sampras was in control when the first rain delay hit the Open in the afternoon, turning the sky green and delaying play for more than two hours.

“It was a scary sight,” Sampras said. “Really, it was green out there. It was. Maybe it was going to rain money.”

He was impressed by Safin’s powerful baseline game and potent serve.

“My game at 18 . . . it was pretty bad, I think,” Sampras said, laughing. “I was still trying to make my mark. But I was pretty flaky. I wasn’t really sure at that point what I really wanted from tennis. When you’re young, you’re still trying to figure it all out.”

Safin knows it will take something extraordinary to even come close to being like the 27-year-old Sampras, the winner of 11 Grand Slam singles titles.

‘I think I can’t play this game,” Safin said, smiling. “Who knows what can happen, but I would like to play like this. I’m not sure, but I have to work a lot to be like him.

“Half of Pete Sampras--to be half of Pete Sampras is enough for me.”