Agassi Has It All Under Control

Instead of Raggedy Andy, the victim was someone named after a heartthrob, grade-B movie actor. But the result was just the same, as Andre Agassi played the puppeteer, jerking Jan-Michael Gambill from side to side, up and back, with power and guile.

Quite simply, the kids aren’t all right against Agassi. The 32-year-old rarely loses to an American not named Pete Sampras, refusing to give an inch, whether it’s a practice session, a final or a routine first-round match.

Gambill, named after Jan-Michael Vincent, won six games against Agassi in the final of the Mercedes-Benz Cup at UCLA on Sunday, and many of those seemed to take a supreme effort from the 25-year-old, which slowly took its toll in the hot sun. Agassi broke his serve four times, overcame a brief surge in the second set and defeated Gambill, 6-2, 6-4, in 76 minutes before a crowd of 7,043. (Total attendance was 83,917, down from last year’s record 87,161.)

It is Agassi’s fourth title of 2002 and the 53rd of his career. His wife Steffi Graf was on hand, along with trainer and close friend Gil Reyes and coach Darren Cahill, who has been with Agassi since the San Jose tournament in February.

Agassi had played his previous four matches in this tournament at night but had little trouble adjusting to the early afternoon sun. Gambill had fits with his service toss and managed to hold serve only once from the north end, which faced the sun.

Outdoors or indoors. Day or night. There’s plenty of company among those who have had misery inflicted by Agassi under a variety of conditions. Andy Roddick, who was upset by Gambill in Saturday’s semifinals, won only five games off Agassi in the semifinals at San Jose in February and was also run ragged.

Gambill has been a longstanding member of the club. In his last five matches against Agassi, Gambill has not won a set. A flicker of hope was erased in ruthless fashion in the second set. Gambill broke Agassi for the first time in the match, making it, 4-4. In the next game, Gambill was broken at 15, getting only one first serve in play.

“Andre was too tough,” Gambill said. “He ran me from side to side to side to side. I felt like a rag doll out there.”

Name an American--young, old or legendary--and Agassi has probably defeated him in the last three years. The list includes Todd Martin, James Blake, Paul Goldstein, Taylor Dent, Alex Kim and, of course, Sampras in last year’s L.A. final. This was Agassi’s third title at UCLA.

The last American besides Sampras to defeat Agassi in a completed match was Vince Spadea at the 1999 Australian Open in the fourth round. One of Gambill’s two victories in his 10 matches against Agassi came three years ago at Scottsdale, Ariz., but Agassi retired in the first set because of an injury.

In the previous tournament in 1999, Cecil Mamiit recorded a victory against Agassi at San Jose. Agassi, though, was defaulted in the second-set tiebreaker because of repeated code violations.

Years ago, he realized it was going to take an extraordinary physical effort to bring himself back from No. 141 in the world and to stay at the top. And now that he has won four titles a year in four of the last five years, he is willing to make the sacrifice to keep going.

“Agassi’s awareness is not restricted to himself. He hit with Gambill at UCLA early last week and got a scouting report. It didn’t take Agassi long to detect a slight difference in Gambill’s game.

“He noticed my toss was higher,” Gambill said.

These observations are part of a larger piece, of what makes Agassi’s return game so overwhelming.

“I still don’t think Lleyton Hewitt is as good” as Agassi on his best day, said Gambill, comparing the return games of both players.

Hewitt, the defending U.S. Open champion, is considered the leading favorite to repeat in New York. But anyone, especially Agassi, who wins a hard-court tournament this time of the year has to be taken seriously.

“I have a lot less questions than a week ago,” he said about his U.S. Open preparation.

His success in L.A. probably helped make his decision to miss the Tennis Masters Series event in Toronto a lot easier. Although Agassi showed no apparent sign of injury Sunday, he cited a lower back and hip injury as the reason for his withdrawal.

One he could not answer was whether he will return to this tournament next year. The ATP schedule has put the L.A. event head-to-head against the tournament in Washington in 2003. As fond as Agassi is of Los Angeles, he has won Washington five times.

Washington is run by SFX Sports Group, the management company of Roddick and Gambill. While the players aren’t contracted to play the event, it is more than logical to assume that would happen with Roddick and Gambill.