Wednesday, Aug. 27, 1997 | 2:01 a.m.
NEW YORK -- Andre Agassi finally showed up at Arthur Ashe Stadium.
The 1994 U.S. Open winner skipped Monday night's dedication of the new 22,547-seat stadium, missing the greatest lineup of champions ever assembled -- 37 of them -- who stood on the court to pay tribute to the man whose name adorns the centerpiece of the $247 million National Tennis Center renovation.
The Las Vegan was there earlier, attending the champions' dinner. But when the others walked from a tent on one side of the facility to the red brick stadium on the other side, Agassi disappeared.
"A situation arose that I needed to make a call," Agassi said after his first-round match Tuesday night. "Quite honestly, it was very disappointing for me not to be there. But sometimes priorities call, and I missed out. I was more disappointed than anybody else."
When asked if he could more specific about the "situation," he curtly answered "No."
But he was there Tuesday night, in his element, on Stadium court with the crowd roaring both for and against him. He won, but he took a little longer than he expected to gain a second-round berth.
After all, Agassi's first-round opponent was Steve Campbell, a right-hander from Detroit who is ranked 130th in the world and received a wild card into the main draw. Cannon fodder, the pundits figured.
They didn't figure on Campbell's heart, nor his quickness, and Agassi needed four sets to win 6-1, 6-1, 4-6, 6-3.
"You can't really expect to just run over anybody," Agassi said. "The bottom line was I was working him to death because he was playing to win. Then, after the two sets, I think he kind of realized he wasn't going to win and just stepped it up and started actually making shots.
"He got himself into a position to where the third set got close, got a little tight, and I made a couple errors at the wrong time."
Campbell, naturally, saw it differently.
"He just totally took my serve away from me" in the first two sets, he said. "The harder I served, the harder he hit the return back. So I just tried to make some adjustments in the third set, tried to mix up speeds on my serves. That started to work a bit."
Although Campbell got into the U.S. Open through the courtesy of the United States Tennis Association, the 26-year-old might be wondering about his luck. Two years ago, his first-round opponent was another former No. 1 player, Mats Wilander.
"I like to play the big matches, play on the big courts," Campbell said. "The crowd always gets into it. It's a different experience for me, playing mostly challengers all throughout the year. I don't mind playing the big names."
He might, however, like to play them in the second round, where the payday this year is a minimum of $15,000. First-round losers collect $10,000.
Agassi, whose year has been marked by marriage and injury, is playing in his first Grand Slam tournament of 1997. He missed the Australian because of his marriage to actress Brooke Shields; the French Open and Wimbledon were bypassed because of a wrist injury.
"It feels great," Agassi said of his return. "It's nice. The U.S. Open always has a great feel to it. It's nice not to miss this one."
Three years ago, Agassi, once ranked No. 1 in the world, was unseeded at the U.S. Open. At the end of the two-week tennis torture test, he reigned as champion.
He is unseeded again this year for only the second time in a decade. But he is happy with his game.
"The fundamentals of everything that I need to improve on are there now," he said. "Now it's about just striking the ball a little bigger. It becomes fine tuning certain things that happen automatically.
"That's the struggle, to get your game to a place where every part of your game is there. ... It's nice to be there. It's been a long time."
Martina Hingis, on the other hand, has been there all year long. The 16-year-old won the Australian Open in January and Wimbledon in July, taking over the world's No. 1 ranking in the process.
On Tuesday, Hingis led 11 women's seeds into the second round: No. 3 Jana Novotna, No. 4 Iva Majoli, No. 5 Amanda Coetzer, No. 6 Lindsay Davenport, No. 7 Conchita Martinez, No. 9 Mary Pierce, No. 10 Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, No. 12 Mary Joe Fernandez, No. 13 Brenda Schultz-McCarthy and No. 16 Kimberly Po.
Two seeded men were upset in a glorious day for French tennis.
Frenchman Guillaume Raoux eliminated No. 8 Carlos Moya 6-4, 7-6 (7-2), 6-2; Arnaud Boetsch of France ousted No. 16 Albert Costa 6-2, 6-4, 6-4; and Nicolas Escude of France, a "lucky loser" who gained a main draw berth when No. 11 Thomas Enqvist of Sweden pulled out at the last minute with an unspecified illness, knocked off Michael Joyce of Los Angeles 7-6 (7-5), 4-6, 6-3, 6-1.
Men's seeds who won were No. 2 Michael Chang of Henderson, No. 3 Yevgeny Kafelnikov, No. 6 Alex Corretja and No. 9 Gustavo Kuerten.
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