Agassi Trounced; Sampras Out

At the beginning of this week’s Franklin Templeton Tennis Classic, organizers had the obvious dream, an Andre Agassi-Pete Sampras final. Thursday, they had a nightmare, a double-edged disappointment.

First, Agassi, the No. 1 player in the world and in such mental and physical shape that he has looked invincible for the last several months, was beaten in a second-round match so stunning in result and manner as to be almost incomprehensible.

Then Sampras, seeded No. 2 and about to play only his second match since suffering a hip injury in his unforgettable semifinal loss to Agassi Jan. 27 in the Australian Open, pulled out with yet another injury. He had beaten Greg Rusedski in the first round Tuesday night, but woke up Wednesday with a sore right side that didn’t heal enough for him to play Thursday night against Alex Corretja.

Sampras and the medical personnel who treated him said that his injury was not serious and that his withdrawal was mostly precautionary.

Sampras said he expects to play in next week’s tournament at the new $75-million Indian Wells Garden Stadium. It is one of tennis’ nine majors, called Tennis Masters Series events, that are rated just a notch below the four Grand Slam events in importance.

This Scottsdale tournament offers a purse of $350,000, the Indian Wells event $2.45 million. So there is obviously considerable additional incentive to be ready for next week, although Sampras certainly didn’t pull out here thoughtlessly, since his brother, Gus, is the assistant tournament director.

Agassi was another story. He was expecting just another day at the office, then somebody spilled the water cooler on him.

That somebody, a Spaniard named Francisco Clavet, was among the least likely players on the ATP tour to achieve such a shocker, a 6-1, 6-2 shellacking of Agassi in only 49 minutes.

A clay-court specialist, Clavet, 31, is ranked 42nd in the world and has seldom been ranked higher than 30th. His best previous result was a victory over then-No. 2 Marcelo Rios at Wimbledon in 1998.

So what happened?

“I’m in shock,” Agassi said. “I just never had any feel out there today. He hits the ball with a lot of spin and the ball was jumping off the court and jumping off my racket. I just never got my range.”

The outcome was clearly more a matter of Agassi’s failures than Clavet’s successes.

“I think that on a normal day for him, those shots that [Agassi] missed today, he wouldn’t miss,” said Clavet, now 1-3 against Agassi. “I don’t have the game to hit balls like him. All I try to do when I play him is to make him uncomfortable.”

Uncomfortable, indeed. Agassi hadn’t lost this badly on an outdoor hard court since he was a teenager. In 1986, when he was 16, Mats Wilander defeated him at La Quinta, 6-1, 6-1. The next year, Andres Gomez beat him in Tokyo, 6-2, 6-0.

Agassi had won this event three times, and was 20-4 here. He was a main draw. As was Sampras.

Now, there are none.