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 Falling seeds Agassi latest marquee player in danger of exiting
Posted: Thursday June 25, 1998 09:55 AM
WIMBLEDON, England (AP) -- Wimbledon has lost six of the 16 men's seeds in the first three days -- and now Andre Agassi is in danger of going out, too. Agassi, the 1992 champion and No. 13 seed, was trailing two sets to one against Germany's Tommy Haas when the second-round match was suspended by darkness Wednesday night. The American was furious over a crucial line call that helped Haas win the third set. A forehand by Haas was ruled good, even though replays showed it was clearly out. Agassi stabbed the spot where he saw the ball land, then approached chair umpire John Frame. "It was nearly six inches [out]," he protested. "It was out both ways. It was wide and it was long.' Frame shook his head and the call stood, giving Haas a 6-3 lead in the tiebreaker. Agassi saved one set point, but succumbed on the next to fall behind 4-6, 6-1, 7-6 (7-4). Play was then suspended, and Agassi resumed his protest. "In 12 years, I've never seen it miss that much," he said to Frame. The Centre Court crowd jeered the umpire and linesmen as they left the court. With the match scheduled to resume Thursday, Agassi needed to do a lot of work to reach the third round. In a sign of how wide open the men's field is, four seeds went out Wednesday - No. 2 Marcelo Rios, No. 4 Greg Rusedski, No. 8 Cedric Pioline and No. 15 Karol Kucera. No. 7 Yevgeny Kafelnikov and No. 10 Alex Corretja were ousted earlier. Rios proved what many people thought: He didn't deserve to be seeded No. 2 behind Pete Sampras. The moody Chilean's distaste for grass was apparent as he lost in five sets to Spain's Francisco Clavet. Rios griped about the line calls, the tournament organization, and especially the surface. "Grass is not a surface to watch tennis or to play tennis," he said. "It's really boring." Rios' priority was to catch the first flight out. "I'm trying to leave tonight, or tomorrow," he said. "But I've got to go." Pioline, last year's runnerup, was eliminated by Switzerland's Marc Rosset in a 3-hour, 53-minute marathon that ended in semidarkness. The fifth set lasted 78 minutes and ended 13-11. Rusedski pulled out before the resumption of his match against Mark Draper, who was up a break in the third set when play was suspended by rain Tuesday. Rusedski, a quarterfinalist here last year, is still troubled by the ankle injury he suffered at the Queen's Club tournament two weeks ago. Rusedski's attempts to play led to an acrimonious split with Tony Pickard, his coach for the past nine months. Pickard announced he was dumping Rusedski because of a 'total breakdown in trust and communication.' Two players with much to prove, Jennifer Capriati and Goran Ivanisevic, enjoyed morale-boosting victories Wednesday. Capriati, whose career was disrupted by injuries and arrests for shoplifting and drug possession, hadn't played at Wimbledon since reaching the quarterfinals in 1993. She'd entered only five other Grand Slam events since then -- and lost in the first round each time. Hoping to kick-start her career after a series of aborted comebacks, Capriati asked for a wild card a week ago, and Wimbledon officials obliged. On Wednesday, she made the most of her chance by beating Australia's Nicole Pratt 6-4, 3-6, 6-4. "I have to believe in myself," she said. "I believe that I can go all the way. If I don't believe that, I see no point of me being here." The same theme was echoed by Ivanisevic, a two-time Wimbledon finalist, after his straight-set win over Grant Stafford. Ivanisevic lost in the first round in four of his previous five Grand Slam tournaments. "I'm feeling much better, much happier and I have a desire to play and practice," he said. "I feel inside of me that it's coming. It's just a question of time when I'm going to break through and make a good result."
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Andre Agassi will need his best game to rally against Tommy Haas on Thursday 