Connors’ Aim Is Off Mark Against Agassi

Andre versus Jimmy.

We especially would have enjoyed watching these two tangle in their prime--sorry, video games won’t quite do it--but, sadly, verbal sparring will have to suffice. Andre Agassi appeared genuinely upset when Jimmy Connors ripped him last week, saying Agassi didn’t deserve to be mentioned in the same breath with him and other legends, and that Agassi had squandered his talent.

Certainly, Connors is entitled to his opinion, even though he is coming off like one of those grumpy old men he probably once mocked. His own record is admirable--five U.S. Open titles, two Wimbledons and one Australian Open.

But the lack of a French Open title is glaring. Connors might not have played it during his very best years, but he did show up 13 times, reaching the semifinals four times.

Agassi’s career has been different, but that doesn’t lessen his accomplishments. The top-ranked Agassi has won five Grand Slam titles--two of them after his ’97 plummet to No. 141--and is one of only five players to have won each of the Grand Slam tournaments.

Notably, Pete Sampras, Bjorn Borg, Connors and Ivan Lendl aren’t in that group of five.

Connors’ argument is deeply flawed, especially coming after what has arguably been Agassi’s best year. He reached three Grand Slam finals--winning the French and U.S. opens and losing to Sampras at Wimbledon. Since Wimbledon, he has lost to only two players, Sampras and Yevgeny Kafelnikov, and he avenged the loss to Kafelnikov in the Open semifinals.

Squandering talent?

That’s more subjective. Agassi has been called a tennis magician for his ability to rise and fall more than once. His lack of single-mindedness over years at a time is one of the things that makes him an interesting person. People can identify with a guy who stumbles.

Agassi doesn’t bemoan the lost years or the lost spotlight. Now, Connors seems to be the one who has fallen into that category.

ADD ANDRE

Boris Becker has remembered a conversation he had with Agassi last year. Becker told German reporters that Agassi started asking him about Steffi Graf. Agassi and Graf now are seeing each other.

This triggered another foggy memory. Agassi was sitting at a small patio outside his hotel room in Scottsdale, Ariz., in March 1998. On the comeback trail himself, he was answering a question about Monica Seles--for some reason or another--when his face suddenly brightened.

“I’m pulling for Steffi,” he said. “We’re both ranked 49th this week.”

A few days later, the sentiment was passed along to Graf and she talked about his comeback with great enthusiasm.

“I was so upset when they were writing, ‘How low did he get?’ ” she said then of Agassi’s drop to the challenger level. “You need to start somewhere. I think that was a very good decision.

” . . . He’s proving it to [the critics] and that’s the only way you can respond to it. So I’m very happy for him.”

Hmmm.

QUOTE, UNQUOTE

* Monique Viele’s pro debut was a rocky one in Tokyo. She lost in the opening round to the unheralded Jane Chi, winning only four games.

Certainly, not everyone can have a Venus Williams-like opening. But the 14-year-old Viele made it tougher on herself by turning on the hype machine. One quote looked especially damaging:

“I have confidence in my ability. I feel I’m ready physically and mentally to beat [Martina Hingis],” Viele told the Tampa (Fla.) Tribune in May. “I feel I have no weakness. Everything’s a strength.”

* The best young female players seem to be emerging from Russia and Belgium. Yes, Belgium. The tiny country had two finalists, 16-year-old champion Kim Clijsters and Dominique Van Roost--in the Seat Open at Luxembourg, and three of the four semifinalists. Another Belgian, 16-year-old Justine Henin, made the quarterfinals.

Henin also came within a game of upsetting Lindsay Davenport in the second round of the French Open.

Two promising Russians are 15-year-old Lina Krasnoroutskaia and 17-year-old Elena Dementrieva.

Krasnoroutskaia, playing in only her second WTA event, reached the semifinals at Luxembourg, losing to Van Roost in three sets. Dementrieva had a major breakthrough last Sunday at Palo Alto, beating Venus Williams in the Fed Cup final.

UPDATE

Expect to see some rule changes next year, on the tours, among others:

* A two-minute break will be taken at the end of each set, regardless of the set score.

* The three-strike rule--the code violation schedule--will be softened. The first offense is a warning, the second a point, the third and following offenses, a game. But the supervisor has the discretion after the third code violation to default a player.

This rule came under scrutiny when Agassi was defaulted earlier this year in the indoor event in San Jose against Cecil Mamiit.

Also, Charlie Pasarell, tournament director at Indian Wells, proposed at recent ATP player council/board of directors meetings to expand the men’s draw to 80 players next year. This would mean main-draw play in the men’s event at Indian Wells would begin a day earlier, on Sunday.

No action was taken on his request at the Open, but the item should resurface at the next board meeting.