Agassi Cramps Frenchman’s Style

Andre Agassi was two points from leaving, well, for Las Vegas. But he survived to play another day, or at least another round, wiggling out of trouble Wednesday against a hot French youngster, 21-year-old Arnaud Clement.

The excited crowd at Roland Garros abandoned its hero, not realizing Clement was suffering from cramps from the fourth set on. The 13th-seeded Agassi wore him down and won, 6-2, 4-6, 2-6, 7-5, 6-0, in 3 hours 20 minutes in the second round at the French Open.

“At one stage, I was on the court and I said, ‘I am winning, up two sets to one,’ ” Clement, ranked 82nd, said. “It was a great feeling. I thought if I would win this match, it would be fabulous. I was already seeing myself raising my hands.”

But Agassi staged his great escape in the 10th game of the fourth set. Trailing, 5-4, on his own serve, he lost the first two points to fall behind 30-0. Agassi then won four straight points and pulled even at 5-5 when Clement hit a backhand wide. Suddenly, it was all Andre. And Clement failed to win another game.

“I was certainly out there working hard today,” Agassi said. “And I didn’t get lucky that he cramped. I worked for that.”

Not so lucky was the besieged Yevgeny Kafelnikov of Russia, who was dismissed by Dominik Hrbaty of Slovakia, 6-4, 6-1, 6-4, in 1 hour 47 minutes. The crowd was not kind to the top-seeded Kafelnikov. But his loss was really no surprise; nor was Richard Krajicek’s exit.

Vince Spadea defeated the fifth-seeded Krajicek of the Netherlands, 6-1, 6-2, 6-4, in another second-round match. Krajicek, the former Wimbledon champion, is not exactly a clay-court specialist.

Then there is Kafelnikov, who has won the French Open. The reigning Australian Open champion had never won in three matches against Hrbaty, and the Russian’s status as the No. 1 player has been regarded, by some observers, as less than legitimate.

“Sometimes, when I’m not at hundred percent in my game, it’s pretty obvious that I’m going to have a tough day in the office,” Kafelnikov said. “That’s basically what happened.

“It seems to me I felt like he wasn’t going to miss a shot. Realistically, I felt it might be happening today.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

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