Andre Survives, Deluge Hits The Lipton, Sunday, March 22 By Ed Toombs

  The clouds rolled in at the Lipton today. Temperatures also cooled and the winds died down, making for more comfortable and player-friendly conditions. Well, at least no-one was suffering from heat exhaustion! Although some players, including Andre Agassi, noted that the sudden temperature drop played havoc with their string tension.

  The inevitable rains came after the day session, postponing evening play entirely. We will therefore have to wait until tomorrow to see the hotly-anticipated Kournikova-Seles showdown.

Andre: a far-from-routine win.

  It seems that the tennis community is unanimously agreed that former number one Andre Agassi is, as they say, "baaaack!". The statistics are certainly impressive: two tournament wins, a 21-3 record in 1997, and 17 shed pounds.

  His third round opponent, Vince Spadea, had upset Pat Rafter two days earlier and came out determined to give Agassi a battle and carve another notch in his belt. Spadea usually gives the big names a tough time at what is virtually his home tournament, and he is the type of scrambling, hard-hitting baseliner who has given Agassi the most problems this year. Agassi's only losses this year have come against players who fit that description: Lleyton Hewitt, Alberto Bersategui and Jan-Michael Gambill. Indeed, Spadea gave stiff resistance, but Agassi pulled out a 6-4, 7-5 win that took just over 90 minutes to complete.

  Spadea was let down by an atrocious serve in what he described bitterly as "the worst serving match of my career.". His first serve percentage was only 42 percent, and his second serve in the 60 mile per hour range was so slow that Agassi often mistimed his return badly.

  Too bad for Vince, as Agassi was not sharp and often looked vulnerable. Serving only 52 percent himself, Andre was fortunate his opponent was having even worse serving problems, and Spadea was staying right with him from the baseline.

  Agassi began the match by spraying a lot of forehands and allowing Spadea to claim an early 3-1 lead. But Andre started taking pace off his shots and trying to find favourable angles, a tactic that allowed him to climb back level in the first set. After breaking Spadea to take a 5-4 lead, Andre had all manner of difficulties closing out the set. After blowing four set points, two of them on double-faults, he finally wrapped up the initial frame with a crisp overhead.

  A close second set turned on a key point in the late stages. Spadea was serving, 5-5, and advantage Agassi. Andre cannily hit a semi-moonball for the first time in this otherwise hard-slugging match, forcing Spadea to swing too early and pull his backhand well wide. The point gave Agassi a 6-5 lead, from which point he served out the match.

  Andre was justifiably underwhelmed with his performance, but will take the win. "The idea is to win matches when you're not, you know, playing great tennis." And a bitterly disappointed Spadea, who felt he had the answer to Agassi from the baseline but was let down his awful serve ("42 percent first serves, I don't think I've had that since I was 18"), takes solace from claiming Rafter's scalp and from a ranking that will likely be in the low 50s next week.

 Shooting from "The Lip":

 Other Men's action:

  Yev vs Jan: One of the most appealing matches of the day featured a clash of styles between the 6th-ranked counterpunching Russian, Yevgeny Kafelnikov, and the 30th-ranked net-rushing Dutchman, Jan Siemerink, won by Kafelnikov, 6-4, 7-6 (7-5). Siemerink, who struggled horribly last year and slid from #15 to #78, has risen from the dead this season, notching a tournament win in Rotterdam. Jan figured to give the talented Russian a struggle.

  He did, and high-quality stuff it was. Kafelnikov's passes and returns were just a touch more solid than Siemerink's serves and volleys on the key points. The Russian gained the only break of the match in the first set, on his only break point opportunity of the match. And a close tie-break was settled when Siemerink, serving at 5-6, narrowly pushed a tough forehand volley wide.

  The draw now appears to be kind to Kafelnikov: a victory over Jeff "Tennis Rodman" Tarango will put him in the quarterfinals, where he may lock horns with Agassi. Tarango advanced when Paul Haarhuis retired with a sprained left wrist after losing the first set of their third-round match.

  "El Chino" rolls on:Marcelo Rios beat back the challenge of German teenager Tommy Haas with an impressive 6-4, 6-3 win. It was a spirited match attended by a strong contingent of chanting, flag-waving Chileans. Rios, fresh off his win at Indian Wells, is razor-sharp and showing no signs of letting down.

  As for Haas: he put on a good show and pressed Rios hard at times with his penetrating groundies. His weakness was his backhand, which is a fine stroke but still tends to let him down at key points. What does Rios think of the 19-year-old German? "He can play good matches. Sometimes he is a little bit out of it. But yeah, he has a good serve, good groundstrokes, and I think he has a lot of potential to be pretty good." If I were Tommy I'd be thrilled with that assessment, as it is probably as close to glowing praise as one can expect from the contumelious Rios.

  Bad year for Nike?: One of Agassi's shoes tore open during his match with Spadea. Reporter: "Is Nike having that bad a year?" Agassi: (after a long pause and with a smile): "These are great shoes." Much laughter ensued.

  Goran's palm tree: As he did in late 1996, Goran Ivanisevic is once again wearing his hair pulled up so that it looks like a plant is sprouting from the top of his head. If this fashion statement was meant to change his terrible tennis fortunes, it seems to be working. The 20th seed fired 13 aces in a victory over Dennis van Scheppingen and now faces Marcelo Rios in the round of 16.

  Bud and Andre: Veteran journalist Bud Collins, who has been sharply critical of Agassi's lack of dedication in recent years, appeared to be trying to mend fences. He stopped Andre after his press conference to thank him for playing Davis Cup and for "coming back for the people". Andre greeted Bud cordially enough, and said, "Well, you're welcome," but didn't linger to chat....

 Women's action:

  A small band of tennis connoisseurs watched a tense marathon between Italy's Rita Grande, who became the 34th seed with Graf's withdrawal, and 25th-seeded Indonesian Yayuk Basuki, finally won by Grande (6-4, 3-6, 6-4). Grande took the opening frame with aggresive tennis, featuring an imposing forehand and a surprising number of trips to the net. But Basuki's strokes started flowing more smoothly as the match went along, and her trademark thundering down-the line forehands began striking the mark.

  Unfortunately for the Indonesian, she appeared hampered by a pulled stomach muscle in the third set, and she had difficulty holding serve. So, however, did a nervous Grande, but she eventually broke Basuki in the tenth game to close out the 1 hour, 53 minute match.

  The 5'10" Italian thus earned the privilege of being Venus Williams's next opponent -- victim? -- in the round of 16....

  Other action: Only one unseeded player moved into the round of sixteen: Serena Williams, an impressive 6-2, 6-3 victor over 26th-seeded Barbara Paulus. This sets up an intriguing fourth rounder between Serena and Patty Schnyder, a winner in her most recent tournament appearance (Linz). Minor upsets were registered by Grande and Silvia Farina (over Ai Sugiyama).

  The big names advanced. Some did so easily, none more so than Martina Hingis, who double-bagelled poor Joanette Kruger. Others laboured: 3rd-seeded Jana Novotna and 2nd-seeded Lindsay Davenport were taken to three sets by qualifier Jana Kandarr and plucky Fang Li, respectively.

  Men? Who needs them!: New WTA CEO Bart McGuire thinks the women's tour should not rush into a series of joint male/female tournaments similar to the Lipton, as has been suggested by the ATP. While he has "not quite closed the door on that concept," he does not want to lock the WTA into events where the women would be disadvantaged in terms of prize money, television exposure and locker room facilities, as they feel they are at the Lipton and Indian Wells.
 

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