Agassi Gets Job Done in Burbank

This was no time for clowning around or playing to the crowd. Andre Agassi had a job to do.

So he pounded ground strokes from the baseline and chugged around the court in workmanlike manner Monday.

“I had my hard hat and lunch pail,” Agassi said. “Absolutely working for every point.”

All that sweat and toil paid off with a 6-2, 6-1 victory over Sargis Sargsian of Armenia in the singles final of the $50,000 HealthSouth USTA Challenger at McCambridge Park in Burbank.

This was not Agassi at his flamboyant best. Nor was it the sort of tournament he would normally enter, a minor league event for players ranked 58th and lower.

But these are not the best of times for the former No. 1 player. With his three Grand Slam tournament titles a memory, Agassi has suffered through injury and listlessness that reduced his ranking to No. 141 last month.

“I’ve taken a two-year sabbatical, but that doesn’t mean I can’t turn it around and start changing my work ethic,” Agassi said. “Every match feels important to me now.”

While the U.S. Davis Cup team traveled to Goteborg to face Sweden in the final, Agassi arrived in Burbank. The tournament represented a final chance to play in 1997, an opportunity to tinker with his game.

Against Sargsian, the top-seeded player here and 58th-ranked in the world, Agassi faced a deceptively smooth baseliner, but someone with neither the serve nor the pace to stay with Agassi.

Agassi hit aggressively from the start, ripping shots from the baseline, attacking whenever the opportunity arose. He raced to a 4-0 lead and finished the set quickly.

“He just never gave me free points,” Sargsian said. “Once I got behind, it was too late.”

The second set brought signs of the old, daring Agassi. He hit a booming forehand to hold serve in the first game, then nicked the line with a return on his way to breaking for a 2-0 lead. The match was over in less than an hour.

“This has been part of a great training plan,” Agassi said. “I’ve got my game in a place where every day was getting better.”

He has some experience with that. Agassi won at Wimbledon in 1992, then slumped before fighting back to win the 1994 U.S. Open.

“I’ve gone through times of focus and non-focus,” he said. “It’s not something I’m proud of, but I’ve learned enough to know that when I step on the court now, it’s going to be with a lot of pride or I’m not going to do it.”

Agassi emerged last month with a new diet and workout regimen. Sixteen pounds lighter, he reached the final of a Challenger event in Las Vegas, then lost to Christian Vinck.

At Burbank, he was the talk of the locker room.

“It’s good to see him back,” said second-seeded Daniel Nestor. “He’s looking pretty fit and excited to play.”

Sargsian fretted, “It’s kind of scary. I mean, you have to go through him just to win a Challenger?”

The title earned Agassi 68 tour points, roughly equivalent to reaching the round of 16 in a Grand Slam event, and probably enough to push his ranking to 107th. The cash prize was less impressive--$7,200 for a week’s work.

“How is it possible that my coach made more than me this week?” he joked, gesturing to Brad Gilbert at courtside.

But his smile lasted only a while, for more is ahead. Agassi will resume training for the Australian Open in January.

“Get down to Australia and get back to work,” he said. “This is just the beginning.”