Columnist Ron Kantowski: Agassi cleans up his act in title defeat

Monday, Nov. 17, 1997 | 12:47 p.m.

SURPRISE. I went to a tennis match Sunday and a Dice Clay concert did not break out.

Two days after making an even grander spectacle of himself by uttering that swear word with all the consonants to the chair umpire, the pride of Las Vegas -- and its favorite Potty Mouth since the late Redd Foxx -- was a model of decorum.

Discounting his sluggish legs, which he said felt like ... well, doo-doo ... Andre Agassi had nary a harsh word for anybody or anything at UNLV's Fertitta Tennis Complex during the championship final of the Las Vegas/USTA Men's Challenger.

Agassi lost 6-2, 7-5 to Christian Vinck, a left-handed German whose serve-and-volley game was as sweet as strudel. Anybody offended by Agassi's profane actions on Friday must have delighted in watching him being served -- in this case, literally -- his just dessert.

But the crowd that snuggled into cozy "center" court (in reality, it's the far left court) was behind Agassi all the way.

Say what you will -- and Agassi certainly did during his quarterfinal match -- it was going to take more than a few expletives for his fans to turn on him and give thumbs up to the Christian.

Agassi wasted little time in burying the hatchet with umpire Norm Chryst (who, no matter what you may have heard Friday, is no relation to Jesus H.).

"I'll be all good today, Norm," Agassi said with a grin that Chryst accepted as a peace offering prior to the warm-up.

And he was. Agassi barely said two words during the match. And when he did, they didn't take a hyphen.

When it was over, when you might have expected Agassi to be a little testy about losing to a player who might have asked for his autograph last year, he was most gracious.

Save for a couple of curt replies to a reporter with whom Agassi is feuding, he did not crack wise on any question.

"If my side of the court was colder, then I'd be the first one bitching about the temperature," he said when asked about the brisk conditions. Only he was smiling again.

If it was all an act, then wife Brooke Shields would have been proud. And if it was an act, then it was been better than any of Brooke's work on "Suddenly Susan."

Tennis' penchant for tolerating boorish behavior aside, what Agassi said to the umpire Friday crossed the line between acceptable ploy and unacceptable behavior.

But with the exception of that Teller guy who does magic (or is it Penn?), at one time or another we all say something we regret. Fortunately, most of us don't do it in a crowded tennis stadium where women and children are present.

Leaving the crowded tennis stadium, a crowd of mostly women and children had formed outside the main gate. They were waving programs and tennis balls and scraps of paper in Agassi's face, in hope that he would sign every item. It appeared he was trying to accommodate them.

It might not have been an apology for acting like -- well, what a donkey digs. But it was close.

Like that ball the umpire said was out.