Agassi Gets Blistered

A blister on his big right toe may have been his final undoing in a second-round loss to Karol Kucera of Slovakia, but another body part apparently gave away defending champion Andre Agassi’s eventual fate at the French Open.

The eyes had it.

Swedes must sense these sorts of things. Tournament favorite Magnus Norman took measure of Agassi and counted him out. On Thursday, Norman’s hunch turned into reality, as the top-seeded Agassi unraveled against Kucera, losing, 2-6, 7-5, 6-1, 6-0. Kucera won 16 of the final 17 games.

During the Kucera avalanche of winners, Agassi tried to save himself in the third set. On the changeover, trailing 4-1, he called for a trainer for treatment, having a callous shaved to reduce pressure on the blister.

“This thing is burning like a son of a bitch,” Agassi told the trainer, Per Bastholt.

And that was all Agassi had to say at Roland Garros. He shook hands with Kucera, waved to the fans, signed a few autographs and promptly got out of sight, leaving without speaking to reporters.

A reporter tried to speak to him afterward, and Agassi made a gesture, signaling that he did not want to speak. Even his usually talkative coach, Brad Gilbert, had very few words, saying: “It’s a bad, bad day. He just had all these blisters. Bad luck, bad day.”

Agassi will be fined possibly as much as $10,000--really, a hollow punishment--just as he was when he skipped the mandatory news conference after a first-round loss at Indian Wells in March, and after a second-round defeat against Chris Woodruff at the French Open in 1996.

Two other seeded players lost in the second round: Sylvia Plischke of Austria defeated 14th-seeded Anna Kournikova of Russia, 6-2, 4-6, 6-3, and Agustin Calleri of Argentina beat No. 14 Dominik Hrbaty of Slovakia, 6-7 (2), 6-1, 6-4, 6-4.

Of course, Agassi’s loss probably resonated more with the public--except for male fans of Kournikova--and the media more than it did with the players.

“The balloon got a serious little pin in it and there was just no effort the last couple of sets,” said USA network commentator and Davis Cup captain John McEnroe.

“It’s disheartening to see that. The good news is, we’ll see someone new. The bad news is we’re not going to see the guys we want to see.”

Norman dismissed the impact of the defending champion’s ouster.

“Nothing,” Norman said. “He was not my favorite to win the tournament, so it doesn’t bother me too much. There are many people I can choose like five, six, seven, maybe 10 really hot [players]. I think I’m one of them.”

Agassi’s lack of clay-court preparation practically mirrored 1999. He played only two events before arriving in Paris last year and barely survived two tight matches early on against Arnaud Clement and Carlos Moya. The guardian angel riding on his shoulder in ’99 was nowhere to be found against Kucera.

“I think he started a trend,” Norman said. “He did this three years ago when he was going down, pulling out of tournaments. He doesn’t play as many tournaments as usual. I can see in his eyes he’s not really as hot as he was last year. I’m not really surprised.”

He has noticed a difference even from when Agassi won the Australian Open in January.

“I can see it in his eyes,” Norman said. “Like last year, and even down in Australia, his eyes were like this big, you know. Now they’re getting a little bit smaller.”

Two other things hurt Agassi. He had to play his first two matches on consecutive days because of bad weather Tuesday--not helping his blistering toe. Then there was his opponent, Kucera, who seems to keep running into Agassi at vulnerable times.

Their best-known previous match was two years ago at the U.S. Open, a wild affair in New York under rowdy conditions. Kucera started having yips with his service toss, continually tossing the ball in the air and catching it. Agassi then made fun of him, imitating Kucera, and started working his way into the match.

He also brought a few high, floating moonballs out of the mothballs, briefly turning the fourth-round match into something looking like a junior event. Kucera eventually won in five sets.

Kucera joked about that Thursday, saying he made an errant toss in this match.

“I did one,” he said, laughing. “I wasn’t that happy with my serve today. I don’t have any problems with the ball toss, hopefully.”

He simply had to stay patient once Agassi started struggling. The comeback started late in the second set, as Agassi led, 5-3, and served for a two-set lead at 5-4. Kucera broke him at 15 and the match completely turned.

“I started to play better. I wasn’t happy with my game, especially in the first set,” he said. “His tactics were very tough. I couldn’t get the right reason to fight against this tactic. I was lucky to get back in the second set to 5-5.”

There was one other strange exit, albeit a little louder. Stefan Koubek, a 23-year-old from Austria, was defaulted in the fourth set of his second-round match against Attila Savolt of Hungary when he threw his racket and hit a ball boy. Earlier, he had received a warning for coaching, racket abuse and verbal abuse and is expected to be fined.

“I’m disappointed, of course,” he said. “. . . But it happened and now I can’t change anything.

“I did not hit him hard. I think he [the ballboy] didn’t speak English. But I said, ‘I’m sorry.’ He was scared, of course, because it happened.”

The last time someone was disqualified from the French Open in the men’s singles draw was in 1995 when Carsten Arriens, a qualifier from Germany, was ejected after hitting a linesman with his racket.

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French Open at a Glance

* Attendance: 30,217.

* Selected results: Men’s singles: Slovak Karol Kucera defeated top-seeded Andre Agassi, 2-6, 7-5, 6-1, 6-0; No. 3 Swede Magnus Norman defeated France’s Fabrice Santoro, 6-1, 6-4, 6-2; Women’s singles: Top-seeded Martina Hingis beat qualifier Julia Abe, 6-4, 7-5; No. 3-seeded Monica Seles beat Emmanuelle Gagliardi, 6-0, 6-1; No. 14 Anna Kournikova lost to Sylvia Plischke, 6-2, 4-6, 6-3.

* Statistic of the day: 6--the number of points Agassi won in the last set of his match against Kucera.

* Quote of the day: “He’s not taking it well.”--Agassi’s coach Brad Gilbert after defeat by Kucera.

TODAY’S FEATURED MATCHES

WOMEN

* Martina Hingis (1), Switzerland, vs. Tathiana Garbin, Italy

* Monica Seles (3) vs. Rita Kuti Kis, Hungary

* Virginie Razzano, France, vs. Mary Pierce (6), France

MEN

* Sebastien Grosjean, France, vs. Yevgeny Kafelnikov (4), Russia

* Gustavo Kuerten (5), Brazil, vs. Michael Chang

* Richard Krajicek, Netherlands, vs. Alex Corretja (10), Spain