Agassi to face Bjorkman in Olympics

Friday, July 19, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

Agassi meets Jonas Bjorkman in the opening round of the tournament that begins Tuesday. Agassi had to rally to beat the Swede, 4-6, 6-2, 4-6, 6-1, 6-2 in the fourth round of the Australian Open in January. It was the only time they have faced each other.

Agassi is the No. 1 seed but has been having a rough time lately. He lost to Chris Woodruff in the second round of the French Open, dropped a first-round match to qualifier Doug Flach, another fellow American, at Wimbledon and was defeated by Australian Patrick Rafter in the third round of the Legg Mason Classic in Washington.

After Pete Sampras withdrew from the Olympics last week, Agassi moved up to the top spot.

Other highly seeded men are No. 2 Goran Ivanisevic of Croatia, No. 3 Thomas Enqvist of Sweden and No. 4 MaliVai Washington of the United States, who lost in the finals at Wimbledon.

Monica Seles, the top-seeded woman, faces China's Chen Li in the first round. Seles moved up to the No. 1 position when Steffi Graf had to withdraw.

The next two seeds are Spaniards, No. 2 Conchita Martinez and No. 3 Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, while Iva Majoli of Croatia is the fourth seed.

Graf's withdrawal led the way for the defending doubles champions, Mary Joe Fernandez and Gigi Fernandez of the United States, to have a bye in the first round of the doubles.

The German pair of Graf and Anke Huber as well as a Swedish team withdrew late. A Chinese team, made up of two singles players already entered, replaced one but there was not another team immediately available for the last spot in the 32-team field.

In the men's competition, Australia's Mark Woodforde and Todd Woodbridge are seeded No. 1. They face the French duo of Arnaud Boetsch and Guillaume Raoux in the opening round.

The medals will be decided Aug. 2 and 3.