Agassi Gives Chela an Attention Deficit

Maybe the worst thing Juan Ignacio Chela of Argentina did Saturday was to come out firing, winning the first game with a 114-mph ace, and pushing Andre Agassi to two deuces on his opening service game.

What could be wrong that that?

“He got my attention,” Agassi said.

Those four words often signal doom for Agassi’s opponents. And unfortunately for Chela, it acted as something of an alarm clock, serving to prod Agassi into stepping up the pace, almost prematurely.

Chela never got to deuce again on Agassi’s serve, and Agassi did not face a single break point. He broke serve in the seventh game, and went on to break twice in the second set, defeating Chela, 6-4, 6-2, in Saturday’s semifinals of the Mercedes-Benz Cup at UCLA’s Los Angeles Tennis Center.

The top-seeded Agassi will face 22-year-old Gilles Muller of Luxembourg in today’s final at 2 p.m. Muller beat Agassi last summer, 6-4, 7-5, in Washington in the semifinals, their only meeting.

Muller defeated second-seeded Dominik Hrbaty of Slovakia, 4-6, 7-6 (4), 6-1, Saturday night. Muller saved two match points in the 12th game of the second set, and won the last 16 points in the third set.

This will be Agassi’s sixth final at UCLA. He is aiming for his fourth title, which would put him in the prestigious company of three other four-time winners of this event: Roy Emerson, Jimmy Connors and Frank Parker.

“Now, I’m getting nervous,” Agassi said, joking.

Joining that sort of club was hardly on the agenda when Agassi resumed practicing a week before this tournament started. He had been out since losing in the first round of the French Open in late May, and needed a cortisone shot to calm his inflamed sciatic nerve.

Here, the tests have grown increasingly difficult, and Agassi has passed each with aplomb.

Just minutes before the semifinal, his longtime trainer Gil Reyes reported that Agassi got up feeling fine after Friday’s tough three-setter against Paradorn Srichaphan in the quarterfinals.

That information was big for the Agassi camp. No one was quite certain how his 35-year-old body would react after such a physical battle. But against Chela, he blended power with selective use of a deft drop shot.

Agassi said in his on-court TV interview that he was pleased with how well he responded, saying he hadn’t felt that “in a number of years.” He continued that theme in the interview room.

“Today was a big day for me,” he said. “Coming off two hours yesterday of real violent movements and throwing myself at everything I could get my racket on, I was really interested to see how I was going to pull up today.

“To be able to go out there and feel that good and move around against a guy that was letting the ball fly was a great feeling for me. It gives me a lot of confidence ... certainly for tomorrow, but also as the summer unfolds. Just to be able to go out there and bring my game without hesitation.”

Wise scheduling will also be a key in the lead-up to the U.S. Open. Agassi is set to play the next three tournaments but it wouldn’t be surprising to see something fall by the wayside at the slightest tweak or twinge.

Now it’s all about the Open, not Washington or Montreal or Cincinnati. His latest victim, Chela, was asked if there was one more Grand Slam title in Agassi’s future.

“I think it will be difficult,” Chela said. “But it’s possible.”

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In the doubles final today, Rick Leach and Brian MacPhie will play Israel’s Jonathan Erlich and Andy Ram following the singles final. Erlich and Ram upset Camarillo’s Mike and Bob Bryan, the top seeds, 6-3, 6-2.