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Slowed down Ankle injury hampers Agassi in loss
Posted: Saturday April 01, 2000 02:51 AM
KEY BISCAYNE, Fla. (AP) -- Andre Agassi walked quickly to his changeover chair, picked up his racket bag, brushed past autograph seekers at the railing and disappeared through an exit. It was the best he had moved all day. Hampered by a mild sprain in his right ankle, Agassi limped out the Ericsson Open with a 6-1, 6-4 loss to Brazil's Gustavo Kuerten in the semifinals. Agassi said the injury was partly his fault because of the physical demands from Wednesday when he needed 2 1/2 hours to beat Tim Henman in the quarterfinals. "This isn't about making excuses," the glum Agassi said. "I'm the one who struggled in my last match." Kuerten's upset prevented an Agassi-Pete Sampras showdown in Sunday's final. Sampras, seeded second, slugged 16 aces and beat No. 14 Lleyton Hewitt 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 in the other semifinal. "Walking on court with Andre on Sunday, there would have been a lot of electricity," Sampras said. "We all would have loved to have seen it. It's a unique matchup, and it's good for the game in this country. But you can't just pencil in Sampras and Agassi in the finals of these tournaments." Sampras advanced to his first final this year. He's bidding for his third title at Key Biscayne and his first since 1994. Hewitt, a 19-year-old Australian, lost for only the third time in 28 matches this year. "I give him a lot of credit," Sampras said. "He's got all of the intangibles -- the heart and the attitude -- to be a champion." In the women's final Saturday, Lindsay Davenport will try to beat Martina Hingis for the sixth time in a row. Davenport is already assured of reclaiming the No. 1 ranking from Hingis next week. Agassi said his ankle should be fine in a few days, and he expects to play in next weekend's Davis Cup match against the Czech Republic. But against Kuerten, Agassi said, the ankle hurt more than he expected. "Pushing off was a big problem," he said. "It was getting worse quickly. Then I started really worrying about damage. I knew the only chance I had was to tape it up, but it wasn't good." Agassi requested an injury timeout after the first set and had his ankle taped. He played better after that but still had trouble moving, especially to his right. Struggling with his footwork on Kuerten's tricky second serve, Agassi never had a break point. "Gustavo came in today and played solid," Agassi said. "I had no ability to do anything about it." Kuerten, the 1997 French Open champion, needs one more win for his first hardcourt title and his first title in the United States. He's the No. 6 seed but came to Key Biscayne just 1-3 on hardcourts this year and was one point from losing his opening match to Arnaud Clement. Since then the Brazilian nicknamed "Guga" has won 10 consecutive sets. "I'm still not thinking that I'm really a hardcourt player," Kuerten said. "I'm much more comfortable on clay still. But when I'm playing well and serving well on hardcourt, I can give trouble to good players." The international mix of fans in South Florida has been supportive of Kuerten throughout the tournament. When he broke Agassi for a 4-3 lead in the second set, the upset appeared inevitable, and fans began waving Brazilian flags and chanting "Guga! Guga!" "They really support me a lot," he said. "Not only Brazilians, but a lot of countries have support here, with people singing and screaming. That's nice for tennis."
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