Agassi Goes to Work in a Hurry

When Andre Agassi, that larger-than-life figure, walked on the court to play his first match a week ago in the French Open, he sensed a certain reticence.

“There wasn’t much clapping because the public was waiting to see my form,” Agassi said.

Acceptance, admiration and adulation followed, in about that order, and the French Open had turned into an Agassi love fest by the time he won his quarterfinal match Tuesday. The sacrificial lamb was Marcelo Filippini of Uruguay, a qualifier who was playing despite a stomach injury.

After Agassi had ruthlessly dismissed him, 6-2, 6-2, 6-0, the Court Central crowd dissed the 31-year-old Filippini with a round of boos and jeers.

“He played hell of a tennis [match],” Filippini said of Agassi. “You know, he kill me on the court. I have no chance. I have no regrets of staying out there. It’s not nice to get booed on the center court, but I was not going to retire because of that.”

Said Agassi, “This is a very yeoman-like result for me. I’m just going to work. Not much room for the emotion. Now, it’s time for work and that’s kind of been my approach to it.”

Filippini, who had not lost a set in four matches, strained a stomach muscle and came down with a a virus before his fourth-round victory over Greg Rusedski. The 13th-seeded Agassi never gave the Uruguayan an opening, never losing serve and winning in 72 minutes.

“From the baseline, I didn’t have too much pain but every time I was trying to run around on my backhand, I hit a forehand, I was slow and had pain,” Filippini said. “But I think he really played a great match. Maybe [if I was] in 100% condition, he still would kick my [butt].”

Agassi’s semifinal opponent will not be ninth-seeded Marcelo Rios of Chile, but rather 30th-ranked Dominik Hrbaty of Slovakia. The 21-year-old, born in Bratislava, defeated Rios, 7-6 (7-4), 6-2, 6-7 (8-6), 6-3, in 2 hours 28 minutes.

Hrbaty first made his name by nearly beating Pete Sampras at the Australian Open in 1997 in the fourth round, squandering a 4-2 fifth-set lead. As recently as the 1994 French Open, Hrbaty was here getting the autographs of Sampras, Boris Becker and Goran Ivanisevic when he played in the junior event.

Now, Sampras and Ivanisevic are long gone from this tournament, and Hrbaty is in his first Grand Slam semifinal.

“The only thing he does is hit hard, if they’re going good, if not . . . “ Rios said. “I don’t know if I was surprised. That’s the way he plays. He hits the ball as hard as he can. I think he played better today.”

Hrbaty, who beat both Rios and Agassi at the Lipton event in March, said he is not feeling any pressure.

“To me, all the matches are the same,” he said. “If you play on the challenger, satellites, World Series [events], they are always tough matches. You have to beat everybody if you want to win tournaments. There is no difference between matches here and other tournaments.”

Try telling Agassi that. The French Open is the only Slam event that has eluded him. Shortly after his victory, a French television personality was already touting an Agassi-Gustavo Kuerten final--never mind that Kuerten still has to play his quarterfinal match today.

Agassi chuckled.

“I don’t mind if they put us into the final right now,” he said, joking. “There’s still a lot of work to do.”

FRENCH OPEN

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