Defending champion Andre Agassi, usually a wizard on the tennis court, almost suffered a humiliating first-round loss in the Australian Open today because of a misstep off court.
His little known Argentine opponent, Gaston Etlis, was two points away from victory at 5-3 in the fourth-set tiebreaker, so close to an upset that he said, "I wanted to call home to Buenos Aires. I wanted to call my father, my mother, my coach. But now ..."Now second seed Agassi has a 3-6, 7-6 (7-2), 4-6, 7-6 (7-5), 6-3 victory.
"I'm still in the tournament and I've got 48 hours" before the next match to nurse the right knee he hurt stumbling on a spiral staircase in his hotel room on the eve of the first round, he said. He added that he expected the knee to be all right in two days.
Had he lost, he would have been the first defending champion in Grand Slam history to lose in the first round to a qualifier.
Other high seeds advanced easily today, a clear day with temperatures in the 70s, in contrast to the frequent 90-plus degree weather of the Australian summer.
No. 5 Michael Chang breezed past David Rikl of the Czech Republic 6-2, 6-1, 6-2, and No. 6 Yevgeny Kafelnikov of Russia, a winner over Agassi in a warm-up tournament in Australia, trounced Fabrice Santoro of France 6-1, 6-1, 7-5.
Progress was tougher for No. 8 Jim Courier, a two-time Australian Open champion, and No. 9 Wayne Ferreira. Courier edged Johan Van Herck of Belgium 7-5, 7-6 (7-1), 6-4 and Ferreira let a two-set lead slip away before beating American Jonathan Stark 6-2, 6-1, 3-6, 3-6, 7-5.
On the women's side, third-seeded Arantxa Sanchez Vicario beat Austria's Beate Reinstadler 6-2, 6-2 and No. 6 Gabriela Sabatini of Argentina ousted American Shaun Stafford 6-0, 6-1. No. 13 Chanda Rubin of Lafayette, La., and No. 15 Naoko Sawamatsu of Japan both had to rebound from first-set losses. Rubin beat Australia's Rachel McQuillan 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 and Sawamatsu defeated Romania's Catalina Cristea 4-6, 6-2, 6-1.
The tournament's youngest player, 15-year-old Martina Hingis of Switzerland, beat Jana Nejedly of Canada 6-1, 6-1.
Etlis, ranked 133rd in the world, had to win three matches just to qualify for this tournament. But on Center Court he looked awesome at times, serving 28 aces, sending groundstroke winners past Agassi and beating him with drop shot-lob combinations.
But Agassi said his injury kept him from making quick starts with his right leg, and "you take away movement, then it opens up a whole margin for error in your shots. ... Such little separates us players that if something is not right, it's a whole different ball game."
That, he said, "was why he would have the nerve to hit so many drop shots."
Agassi said he never felt doomed during the 3-hour, 16-minute match, even though Etlis led 4-0 in the second set after winning the first and then was near triumph in the fourth before a series of errors and a line call on set point that sent him fuming.
"He was getting pretty creative with finding ways to lose it," Agassi said, "so I wasn't really willing to believe I was going to be out of it quite yet."
Asked to rate Agassi's play, Etlis replied: "Not too good, I think. But I don't know. At the end, when he wanted to play better, the match was very close and very tough. ... I think he hasn't played for a long time and it is difficult, the first match."
Agassi had been out three months with a chest injury, while he slipped to No. 2 behind Pete Sampras.
"I was pretty lucky today and pretty unlucky last night," Agassi said of his slip.