It’s a Lost Journey for Listless Agassi

This lost, and perhaps last, major opportunity in a Grand Slam may haunt Andre Agassi in his latest attempt to reinvent himself.

Agassi started the second week here at the Australian Open looking at a field without Pete Sampras, Marcelo Rios, Carlos Moya, Alex Corretja, Patrick Rafter, Mark Philippoussis and Richard Krajicek.

And now, it is without Agassi.

Monday, the door slammed shut on Agassi in the wide open Open. The fifth-seeded Agassi lost to 24-year-old Vince Spadea, a player he once called a classic “journeyman.”

Spadea defeated Agassi, 6-1, 7-5, 6-7 (7-3), 6-3, in 2 hours 40 minutes in a fourth-round match on a hot, humid day. The 44th-ranked Spadea, who has never advanced past the fourth round of a Grand Slam, will next play Tommy Haas of Germany in the quarterfinals.

On the women’s side, 10th-seeded Steffi Graf of Germany won her fourth-round match in 47 minutes, defeating Barbara Schett of Austria, 6-1, 6-1. Naturally, sixth-seeded Monica Seles won her match in 47 minutes, beating 14th-seeded Sandrine Testud of France, 6-0, 6-3, losing just five points in the first set.

Facing the most difficult test was second-seeded Martina Hingis of Switzerland, who defeated 16th-seeded Amanda Coetzer of South Africa, 6-3, 6-7 (7-4), 6-1, in 2 hours 9 minutes.

The women may have lost two of the top four seeded players, but that is nothing compared with the wreckage on the men’s side. Upsets and injuries left the Open with seventh-seeded Karol Kucera of Slovakia as the highest remaining seed. Others in the quarterfinals are Marc Rosset of Switzerland, Thomas Enqvist of Sweden and Nicolas Lapentti of Ecuador. There are two other fourth-round matches remaining--Wayne Black of Zimbabwe vs. 15th-seeded Todd Martin; and Andrei Pavel of Romania vs. 10th-seeded Yevgeny Kafelnikov of Russia.

“It’s hard to shake off any loss,” Agassi said. “It always stays with you, and Grand Slams more than anything else. . . . It’s real disappointing. Grand Slams are opportunities to do something great. You put a lot of pressure on yourself.”

Agassi can’t seem to get past the fourth round in Grand Slams lately. In 1998, he lost twice in the round of 16 at the U.S. and Australian opens, and in the second round at Wimbledon to Haas, and to Marat Safin in the first at the French Open.

Clearly, this was his best opportunity against a watered-down field. Still he didn’t agree with the notion he faced extra pressure as the favorite.

“I’ve been around long enough to know the press will never figure it out,” he said. “It’s one day at a time.”

Early on, Agassi looked unsettled. His service was broken at 15 in the opening game and he never truly looked comfortable, missing a host of easy sitters and blasting overheads wide and in the net. On the last two points of the match, he barely moved to chase down Spadea’s shots.

Spadea is hard to read, and he hardly celebrated the victory. You would have thought this was a second-round match in Memphis, not Melbourne.

“I didn’t want to make it look like I ended world hunger or anything,” he said.

“I guess it’s the biggest accomplishment to date. To be poised and to get through the match confidently was something I was pleased about.”

The other day, Spadea chuckled when the journeyman comment was mentioned. But he hasn’t been dwelling on it.

“The journeyman part is kind of water under the bridge,” Spadea said. “It was way back at the Lipton, almost a year ago. Everyone has moved on.”

Agassi will have to do so now, trying to get past another disheartening Grand Slam. And at age 28, chances like this may be far fewer.

“It wasn’t good today, certainly it didn’t feel good out there,” he said. “I was trying to work myself into the match and I felt way out of my rhythm. The second set was a big turnaround, if I could have gotten back to a place where I was playing well again.

“It just wasn’t meant to be today.”

Other than Hingis, the top women had no such trouble. Seles and Graf will play in one quarterfinal, and they have been making the same sort of progress here. Difficult third-round matches and easy fourth-rounders.

“It’s the right time, I guess,” said Graf, who had just four unforced errors in the second set. “The last two matches, I didn’t play up to my potential and today I just went out there and I had a little better attitude, and said, ‘OK, I’m going to go for my shots.’ And I knew I had to play better if I wanted to beat her because she has had a couple of very good tournaments.

“It was good for me to have a good match today.”

The symmetry between Graf and Seles makes sense. They have been taking measure of one another since 1989 and will be meeting for the 14th time Wednesday in the quarterfinals. Graf leads the series, 9-4.

The rivalry is full of history, drama and emotional baggage. And it is a rivalry sadly interrupted when Seles was stabbed in the back in April 1993, in Hamburg, Germany, by a deranged fan of Graf’s.

Since Seles returned, the two have played three times, twice in the U.S. Open final and most recently at the season-ending Chase Championship in November at New York. Graf won all three matches. In New York, she survived a wicked array of Seles groundstrokes in the opening set but prevailed, 1-6, 6-4, 6-4, in the quarterfinals.

* J.A. ADANDE

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* FAST SLIDE

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