Players Who Could Be King Sink Fast Down Under

From his comfortable vantage point, Pete Sampras kept making great shots . . . on the golf course.

He was looking happy and relaxed, judging from international sports highlight shows.

And, why not?

All last week, his closest competitors kept blundering Down Under.

* Marcelo Rios of Chile never stepped on the court, the victim of a potentially serious back injury.

* Spaniard Carlos Moya lasted longer in tabloid gossip columns than he did in the tournament, losing in the first round.

* Alex Corretja, unrecognized by Qantas airline employees, lost to an unrecognized Norwegian Christian Ruud in the second round.

* Patrick Rafter’s cool-looking zinc-oxide war paint had barely worn off by the time he was duly dispatched by Thomas Enqvist in the third round.

Sampras has been able to hold on to the season-ending No. 1 for a record six consecutive years in many ways. Give him points and props for creativity to start his 1999 campaign: winning by not playing.

Expected to start his season at an event in San Jose, he is in the comfortable position of not having a great deal of computer points to defend early. Last year, at the beginning of the season, he won the Philadelphia tournament but lost in the third round at Indian Wells, Calif., and Key Biscayne, Fla.

Those who practiced with Sampras late in 1998 knew his quest to retain No. 1 took a severe toll.

“I wasn’t surprised at all,” Jeff Tarango said. “He was really, really tired. I couldn’t believe it. I’ve never seen his face like that. I think it took a lot out of him to get that sixth time. He didn’t feel like he was very really appreciated, [Michael] Jordan won the NBA title six times and it was the biggest thing ever.”

Justin Gimelstob also saw Sampras’ fatigue firsthand. In December, Gimelstob stayed at Andre Agassi’s house and the two practiced at UCLA on a court next to Sampras and Jim Courier.

“There was a tremendous amount of Grand Slam championships at UCLA,” said Gimelstob, a former Bruin star. “Usually when I’m at UCLA, I think I’m big man on campus. You could tell Pete, even there, was very unenthusiastic. He’s very unenthusiastic at practice usually, but he was beyond unenthusiastic.

“You could tell he was tremendously drained, playing all those tournaments in the fall. I think he knew, if he’s not fit, he wasn’t going to win [in Australia] anyway. It’s not like getting to the quarterfinals or semifinals is a real big deal for him. Going down here, going through that, he might have sacrificed things later in the year.”

ADD GIMELSTOB

The Agassi-Gimelstob relationship has been repaired. It hit a rocky patch during the tournament at UCLA last summer when Gimelstob got upset after Agassi said there were not any decent young U.S. players coming up other than Jan-Michael Gambill.

The lowest point was when Agassi’s coach, Brad Gilbert, and Gimelstob’s father Barry got into a heated argument at the U.S. Open and had to be separated before it turned into a full-fledged fight.

Finally, Agassi and Gimelstob held a peace accord at an Elton John charity event late last year in Chicago, and Gimelstob said they talked it out and apologized to one another.

DAVIS CUP WOES . . . AGAIN

Despite new USTA President Judy Levering’s powers of persuasion, Agassi said he won’t be able to play in the first-round Davis Cup match against Great Britain at Birmingham, England.

Some thought Agassi’s stance might change once Levering took over from Harry Marmion.

“Ultimately, the system doesn’t seem to lend itself to real changes, just because every two years you get a new person in there,” Agassi said. “And two years isn’t enough time to do it, to make good changes. But it certainly is enough time to screw up a lot.

“I think she [Levering] is going to be a wonderful addition, and I can’t wait to see the changes and the progress she makes, and then I anxiously wait to see who is going to screw it all up.”

Agassi isn’t the only American to bypass this round; Sampras and Michael Chang have made themselves unavailable. Courier is bothered by their “apathy” and cannot understand why Sampras won’t play because he did not feel appreciated enough in past performances.

“I’ve heard him express that too, and I just think, ‘What are you playing for?’ ” Courier said. “I mean, did the public get that excited when he won Wimbledon for the fifth time? They certainly weren’t in America, and it didn’t get published in any major publication in America, but he seems to find that important.

“If you are playing for media coverage, I think you are playing for the wrong reasons. But what do I know?”

STRONG FIELD

As always the men’s and women’s events at Indian Wells are expected to feature most of the ranked players. Twenty-nine of the top 30 men have entered, with the exception of Thomas Johansson of Sweden.

One notable absence on the women’s side will be Venus Williams, who reached the semifinals at Indian Wells last year. She said she’s not playing because she and her sister, Serena, are trying to avoid entering the same tournaments as much as possible.

QUOTE, UNQUOTE

* “God bless that man. I hope he’s living like a king right now.”--Agassi on Sampras, who retained his No. 1 spot despite skipping the Australian Open.

* Actually, I got a B-minus because I didn’t punctuate very well.”--Tarango, on the grade he received at Stanford for a paper on drug testing.