On a roll
Agassi beats Gimelstob for 10th straight win, faces Henman in final
Posted: Sunday August 02, 1998 01:03 AM
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Agassi, currently ranked 13th in the world, gets his 10th consecutive victory without dropping a set AP |
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Andre Agassi cranked up his famed return of
serve to beat Justin Gimelstob 6-0, 7-6 (7-2) on Saturday in the
Mercedes Cup semifinals, his 10th consecutive victory without
dropping a set.
Agassi, the fifth seed, advanced to the final here for the first
time since 1988. He'll face No. 2 seed Tim Henman of Britain, a
7-5, 6-3 winner over Frenchman Guillaume Raoux in the night
semifinal.
"It's not about winning to me at the moment," Agassi said.
"It's about execution and dedicating myself to my goals day after
day."
Agassi raced through the first set in 22 minutes under a
cloudless sky and blazing sun on the UCLA campus, where Gimelstob
won the NCAA doubles title for the Bruins before turning pro in
1996.
After surprising top-seeded Patrick Rafter 6-4, 6-3 in Friday's
quarterfinals, Gimelstob proclaimed, 'This is my house.'
On Saturday, he conceded that Agassi had invaded.
"It's still my place," Gimelstob said, "but he can lease it
from me this year."
Last year, Gimelstob shocked Agassi 7-5, 6-2 in the first round
for his biggest victory as a pro. Ranked 98th in the world,
Gimelstob topped that by sending Rafter home Friday.
"In every single department, I'm a better player than I was
last year," said Agassi, ranked 13th in the world. He was 32nd at
this time last year and headed to a low of 122nd by year's end.
Henman has been on a roll since Wimbledon, where he was the
toast of Britain for making the semifinals despite losing to
eventual champion Pete Sampras.
Raoux, a semifinalist last year, blew a 3-1 lead in losing the
first set. Down 1-2 in the second, he was broken by one of Henman's
huge forehands for the only break of the set. Henman closed out the
match with two consecutive 130 mph-plus serves.
"Today was the best I've played this week," Henman said. "My
serve is something that's improved a lot."
Agassi showed his improvement in the first set, breaking the
6-foot-5 Gimelstob three times with laser-like returns of the
second-year pro's big serves. Gimelstob's major weapon failed him
most of the time, including a double-fault on triple break point to
trail 0-5.
"I was really struggling to see on one side of the court,"
said Gimelstob, bothered by serving into the sun. "I didn't come
out firing at the beginning of the match. He's going to make you
hit winners."
During the first changeover of the second set, both players had
their coaches on court to talk strategy as part of a
five-tournament ATP Tour experiment. What did Brad Gilbert tell
Agassi?
"He says, `Ditto. Do that one more time,'" Agassi said of his
easy first set. "Brad knows a 6-0 set is sometimes the worst thing
that can happen to you because it conditions you to think things
are going to be easy."
Gimelstob made it tougher in the second set, cutting back on his
errors as neither player broke serve en route to the tiebreaker.
Agassi moved to a quick 4-0 in the breaker when he hit a
backhand passing shot and Gimelstob committed three straight
errors. He netted a forehand on match point.
"I didn't put together a return game against him, which was
shockingly disappointing," he said. "When you play the top
players and you lose, you see the things you need to improve."
The players backed off the comments each made Friday about the
other. Agassi said Gimelstob could be among the world's top 30
players, but he picked Jan-Michael Gambill as an American with more
potential than Gimelstob.
That rankled Gimelstob, who said Agassi had disrespected him
with his opinionated comments.
"I'm opinionated, I guess," Agassi said Saturday. "He can get
better. How better, time will tell. Maybe he has plans to be No. 1
in the world. I wish him all the best."
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