Agassi Survives Martin

Andre Agassi looked like the sure winner of the Escape of the Day Award, having rescued himself in the fifth set Friday, when he turned from a certain second-round Wimbledon loser into a savvy survivor.

Maybe, though, there was another worthy contender--Pete Sampras.

The second-seeded Agassi needed a little help from his opponent, Todd Martin, who squandered two match points and a 5-2 fifth-set lead, but Agassi won, 6-4, 2-6, 7-6 (3), 2-6, 10-8, in 3 hours 47 minutes.

Then later, six-time champion Sampras got an assist from the weather and gained a crucial extra day in recovering from his left leg injury, an inflamed shin.

Instead of starting his third-round match against Justin Gimelstob at night under potentially difficult conditions, Sampras will play in daylight today, weather permitting, naturally.

He will have had two full days off after beating Karol Kucera of Slovakia in the second round Wednesday. Sampras hurt his leg warming up just before the match and needed treatment during it, hobbling and visibly in pain.

It was Kucera who put Agassi out in the second round of the French Open when Agassi was suffering from blisters. Here Friday, Agassi nearly repeated his Roland Garros showing, but there was no obvious culprit, no injury responsible, for his sometime malaise against Martin.

The match, which had been interrupted by rain Thursday, resumed in the fourth set. Agassi was ahead, two sets to one, but Martin had broke him to start the fourth just before play was called.

Friday, Martin won the fourth set, then got up two service breaks on Agassi for a 5-2 lead.

Agassi, bothered by Martin’s slice backhand, also looked distracted, missing a relatively simple high volley on break point in the third game of the fifth set, losing his serve at love.

Martin’s two match points came at 5-3, with Agassi serving. On the first, Martin hit a backhand return into the net, off a second serve. Agassi fought off the second with a simple backhand volley after a rally.

This was not the first time Martin had squandered a sizable fifth-set lead on Centre Court. The other occasion, however, was much more significant.

In 1996, Martin lost after having held a 5-1 lead against Mal Washington in the fifth set in the semifinals.

“Todd has a very effective game that can make a lot of adjustments,” Agassi said. “You know, I needed a little help from him at 5-2 down. I mean, I was very lucky to get back into the match.”

Martin, as usual, was candid, admitting that the comparison to ’96 was fair.

“I don’t think the moment was as big as in ‘96,” he said. “ . . . There were points where I got tight, and those were critical points. At 15-0, there was a tight second serve. From there, I tried to keep ’96 in my mind, so I could draw from the positives I found from there.”

Agassi, too, was cognizant of Martin’s history at Wimbledon. He said he wouldn’t “put the label of choking on Todd.”

Still . . .

“At 5-2, while I was well aware of the fact he managed to do that before on Centre Court, I certainly didn’t expect it,” Agassi said. “When I got the break with the double at 30-30, it did start crossing my mind, ‘Make him play. At least make him win it.’

“Then in the 5-4 game, he made some loose errors. It turned out to be a factor, but I wasn’t counting on that.”

A 45-minute rain delay, which, combined with length of the Martin-Agassi match and the busy schedule, postponed the featured women’s match on Centre Court. Fifth-seeded Venus Williams, who was scheduled to play Nathalie Dechy of France, will play today, after Sampras-Gimelstob.

So Venus Williams finished the day watching her younger sister, eighth-seeded Serena Williams, beat Cristina Torrens-Valero of Spain, 6-2, 6-1, in the third round. Serena Williams, the reigning U.S. Open champion, served 12 aces and Torrens-Valero double-faulted nine times.

“I’m looking good, I’m feeling good,” said a beaming Williams, who blew kisses to the crowd at Court 1. “That’s most important. Like I said earlier, I think I’m doing some things better than I actually was at the [U.S.] Open.”

She was practicing during the Agassi-Martin match and was stunned by Agassi’s comeback.

“That’s my specialty,” Williams said. “But I don’t like to be down. I’d rather be ahead.”

*

U.S. Davis Cup captain John McEnroe said Friday that he had been planning to select Sampras, Agassi and Martin for the semifinals against Spain at Santander, Spain, July 21-23, and had spoken to Jan-Michael Gambill about playing. (Gambill defeated Paul Goldstein, 7-6 (10), 6-2, 6-2, in a third-round match).

Those plans were made, however, before Sampras was injured.

“To say I’m not concerned is an understatement,” McEnroe said. “I’ve been looking for someone with American blood. Know anybody? We don’t have a lot of options.”

McEnroe was asked if he would play doubles.

“I’m in a mini-slump,” McEnroe said. “I could see throwing myself in, but I’m one of the lower options--but not the last one. We could put together several combinations in doubles. That’s the least of our worries.”

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Wimbledon at a Glance

A brief look at what happened Friday on the fifth day of the

$12.6-million Wimbledon Championships:

* Seeded winners (Men): No. 2 Andre Agassi, No. 9 Thomas Enqvist.

* Seeded winners (Women): No. 1 Martina Hingis, No. 8 Serena Williams, No. 11 Anke Huber.

* Seeded matches postponed (Men): No. 1 Pete Sampras against Justin Gimelstob.

* Seeded matches postponed (Women): No. 5 Venus Williams against Nathalie Dechy.

* Stat of the Day: Only seven men’s seeded players reached the third round. The fewest seeds to reach the third round is six, which happened in 1971 and 1972.

* Quotes of the Day: “Once I lost my serve the second time I really didn’t think there was a whole lot of hope left.”--Andre Agassi about being broken by Todd Martin for 2-5 in the fifth set.

Featured Matches

Schedule of matches today on the show courts and others involving seeded players.

CENTRE COURT

* Pete Sampras (1), United States, vs. Justin Gimelstob, United States

* Nathalie Dechy, France, vs. Venus Williams (5), United States

* Tim Henman (8), Britain, vs. Hicham Arazi, Morocco

COURT 1

* Rainer Schuttler, Germany, vs. Patrick Rafter (12), Australia

* Paola Suarez, Argentina, vs. Lindsay Davenport (2), United States

* Jerome Golmard, France, vs. Andre Agassi (2), United States

COURT 18 SHOW COURT

* Sandra Nacuk, Yugoslavia, vs. Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario (9), Spain