Agassi wins ‘97 debut

Thursday, Feb. 13, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

"I'm committed to the long haul," said the 12th-ranked Agassi, who struggled in his first match in nearly three months before beating Mark Knowles 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 Wednesday night in the Sybase Open.

Agassi, a three-time champion here, opted to skip the Australian Open and Davis Cup in favor of making his ATP season debut in San Jose, where he lost last year's championship match to No. 1 Pete Sampras.

At the time, Agassi and Sampras were playing for the top ranking. A year later, Agassi is grappling to regain the form that placed him No. 1 for a 30-week run in 1995.

"I want to use this time to get the foundations of my tennis game set," Agassi said. "The goals become clearer as the year goes on. It's still within my ability to pull off the big matches at the right time."

Could that big match be a rematch with Sampras, who has smoked Agassi in four head-to-head meetings since 1995?

"It's possible," Agassi said. "Crazier things have happened. If I play Pete in the finals, hopefully I won't get my butt kicked."

Knowles, ranked 144th, was a roommate of Agassi's when the two were teenage phenoms at the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy. He has never been ranked higher than 96th.

"He looked really focused out there," Knowles said. "He looked like he was enjoying himself out there."

Down a break at 2-4 and serving in the first set, Agassi broke back in the eighth game after Knowles fought off five break points. Agassi then won eight of the next 11 points to take the set.

After breaking Agassi again in the fifth game of the next set, Knowles held serve to win 6-4. But in the third set, Knowles double-faulted at break point of the fourth game, and that was enough to put Agassi over the hump.

Agassi will play Magnus Norman in a second-round match tonight. Sampras has already won his first two matches easily. He finished off Justin Gimelstob 6-2, 6-3 in a late match Wednesday night.

Gimelstob, a 20-year-old practice partner of Sampras, played him for the first time.

"I don't have a bunch of pictures of him in my room or anything," Gimelstob said, "but it's possible I might have had too much respect for him. "

"He's got a good future," Sampras said, "but he's got a few things to work on in his game, like his second serves. He's still young."