Agassi Flounders but Finally Flashes Form The Lipton, Tuesday, March 24 (night session) By Ed Toombs

  In the late night Tuesday session, 29th-seeded Andre Agassi finally showed Lipton the fans flashes of the form which might allow him to win this tournament. It didn't come until the third set, and he was a little lucky to be still on court by that point, but Agassi finally prevailed against Albert Costa of Spain, 7-6 (7-5), 4-6, 6-1.

  Agassi was missing badly early, compiling 38 errors over the first two sets and falling behind 1-4 in the first and 1-3 in the second. He said the heavy topspin used by "Al Costa", as he calls him, was giving him fits. "I played two guys back to back [Escudé and Spadea] who hit a very flat ball and hit a very hard ball. Then Al Costa hits a lot of topspin on it, moves well. I wasn't reading it early. It was jumping at me."

  But Andre cut the unforced errors down to 5 in the third set, and finally showed the impressive form fans have been expecting. I though he was definitely playing safer, "percentage" tennis, but Andre replied that wasn't exactly correct. "It was just a balancing act out there, trying to get on top of his ball without taking too big of a risk, but still staying in control of the points. It took me a while to dial that in."

  In the quarterfinals on Thursday, Andre will try to dial in to a player who, even more than himself, likes to take up a lot of psychological space on the court: the inimitable Jeff "Psycho" Tarango. Tarango entertained the media yesterday by recalling their first-ever meeting, when he was 8 and Andre was 7. It was the only time Tarango has ever beaten Agassi. "I think he got overruled on match point," recalls Tarango, "and he started crying. He says I made him cry. He forgets that he got overruled on match point."
 

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