Los Angeles Open Tennis Tournament

The plates were barely cleared away from Breakfast at Wimbledon when Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi got together for a memorable rematch at the Mercedes-Benz Cup tournament in 1999 in Los Angeles. Earlier in the month, Sampras beat Agassi in straight sets to win his sixth Wimbledon crown. It wasn't as though Agassi played poorly. He didn't. Sampras hit a high level and never returned to earth. He was still soaring in Los Angeles.

Dudi Sela is only 5 feet 9 and his biography says he weighs 147 pounds, but whether that is before or after dinner is the question. He will play 6-foot-6 Sam Querrey today in a men's quarterfinal match at the L.A. Tennis Open. If Querrey were to stand in front of Sela, the 24-year-old Israeli might disappear.

An unusual outcome had the winner shaking his head. Rod Laver was certainly capable of a one-sided victory. He'd won the Grand Slam--all four majors in the same calendar year--in 1962 and came to the Pacific Southwest Open tournament in 1968 as the reigning Wimbledon champion. But winning the final two sets, 6-0, 6-0, in the tournament final was extraordinary.

John Isner needed to finish off Marcos Baghdatis immediately. Isner already had lost four match points, and in the second-set tiebreaker, he'd just rolled his left ankle chasing a shot and was down 11-10. But Isner pulled himself together Wednesday and won, 6-3, 7-6 (11), to advance to the quarterfinals of the L.A. Tennis Open at UCLA. "I was extremely lucky," Isner said. With the score tied at 10 in the tiebreaker, Isner tried to change direction to reach a ball when he rolled his ankle.

They came to see John and came away talking about Paul. Paul Annacone realized that fans might have been disappointed that they didn't get to see John McEnroe in the Volvo tournament at the Los Angeles Tennis Center and acknowledged it after the final. No apologies needed. The 1985 final between Annacone and Swedish star Stefan Edberg is considered by many to have been one of the best of the Los Angeles events since it was moved to UCLA in 1984.

Next week marks the start of the 75th Los Angeles Open tennis tournament, now called the Mercedes-Benz Cup. Another in a series looking back at some of the more memorable moments. * What did Manuel Santana, Tony Roche, Fred Stolle and Roy Emerson have in common in 1966? If you guessed that the 1966 Pacific Southwest tennis championships represented a gathering of the Grand Slam winners that year, you would be correct.

The Los Angeles Open Tennis Tournament, for years known as the Pacific Southwest and most recently as the Infiniti Open, caught a nice break Friday. In the world of tennis, it was the equivalent of the ball ticking the net cord on match point and dropping on your opponent's side. Andre Agassi is coming. The event, which has struggled through various sponsors, date shifts and identity crises in the last decade or so, now has something it can flash on the marquee.

A guy like Michael Chang is as necessary to tennis as a net. Not everybody can be Pete Sampras, Bjorn Borg, Jimmy Connors--or even Bill Tilden, Rod Laver or J. Donald Budge. Somebody has to keep them honest. And on their toes. They used to call guys like Michael "trial horses" in the fight game. Or "strictly an opponent." An "opponent" had to be good but not great. He had to hit hard but not too hard. He had to be crafty, a skilled survivalist. The slightest slip and he had you.

Tennis, which used to be the most formful of sports, has become the least. Like golf it has gone from Who's Who to Who in the World's That? The top seeds never sprout. When Big Bill Tilden, or Donald Budge or Rod Laver took the court, the outcome was a foregone conclusion. Today, it's about as foregone as a lottery. Take this week's Los Angeles Open at the UCLA Tennis Center.

Call it the new and improved Los Angeles Open. Typically, attending the L.A. Open meant watching Michael Chang wear down a few court surfaces every day before losing in the final. The past two years it has meant watching Richard Krajicek of the Netherlands serve his way to the title. But this year, the $325,000 tournament, which begins today at the L.A. Tennis Center at UCLA, promises to be different for two reasons: Boris Becker and Andre Agassi.

Professional tennis takes Carsten Ball all over, from Sacramento to Sarasota, Fla., to Savannah, Ga., so he welcomes a match near home. He has made the most of it so far. The 22-year-old Newport Beach resident advanced to the second round of the L.A. Tennis Open on Tuesday by defeating France's Marc Gicquel, 6-2, 7-6 (6). "I don't get to spend that much time at home so when I can, an hour drive is definitely worth staying at home," said Ball, who faces third-seeded Dmitry Tursunov today.

The new cut policy on the PGA Tour will be under review today when the Player Advisory Council meets at Riviera Country Club. Several players have voiced complaints about the policy, which limits playing fields on weekends to a maximum of 78 players. If more than 78 players make the cut, some are sent home with last-place money instead of getting the opportunity to improve their positions on the weekend.

If you want to know how strong a pitch veteran tournament director Bob Kramer made to get Roger Federer to come to Los Angeles, consider what Kramer did last year. He hopped on a plane and made his case in person. Except "hopped" conjures images of a trip from Los Angeles to San Francisco, not a 14-hour flight to Melbourne, Australia.

The plates were barely cleared away from Breakfast at Wimbledon when Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi got together for a memorable rematch at the Mercedes-Benz Cup tournament in 1999 in Los Angeles. Earlier in the month, Sampras beat Agassi in straight sets to win his sixth Wimbledon crown. It wasn't as though Agassi played poorly. He didn't. Sampras hit a high level and never returned to earth. He was still soaring in Los Angeles.

They came to see John and came away talking about Paul. Paul Annacone realized that fans might have been disappointed that they didn't get to see John McEnroe in the Volvo tournament at the Los Angeles Tennis Center and acknowledged it after the final. No apologies needed. The 1985 final between Annacone and Swedish star Stefan Edberg is considered by many to have been one of the best of the Los Angeles events since it was moved to UCLA in 1984.

An unusual outcome had the winner shaking his head. Rod Laver was certainly capable of a one-sided victory. He'd won the Grand Slam--all four majors in the same calendar year--in 1962 and came to the Pacific Southwest Open tournament in 1968 as the reigning Wimbledon champion. But winning the final two sets, 6-0, 6-0, in the tournament final was extraordinary.

Sixth-ranked Michael Chang was seeded first in the Los Angeles Open, which begins Monday at the Los Angeles Tennis Center at UCLA. Boris Becker was seeded second and Andre Agassi third. No. 9 Becker will play No. 106 Grant Stafford of South Africa in a first-round match during Tuesday's 11 a.m. session. Agassi, ranked 20th, will open against No. 84 Nicklas Kulti of Sweden on Tuesday in a session that begins at 7:30 p.m.

In the world of sports marketing, there are a few rules that seem almost obvious. Try to avoid scheduling your event during the Super Bowl, for instance, and never go up against the Olympic Games. This week at the Infiniti Open at UCLA's Los Angeles Tennis Center, organizers again find themselves in the unenviable position of having to break the latter rule. This is the third time the L.A. tournament and the Summer Olympics have coincided.

Next week marks the start of the 75th Los Angeles Open tennis tournament, now called the Mercedes-Benz Cup. Another in a series looking back at some of the more memorable moments. * What did Manuel Santana, Tony Roche, Fred Stolle and Roy Emerson have in common in 1966? If you guessed that the 1966 Pacific Southwest tennis championships represented a gathering of the Grand Slam winners that year, you would be correct.

The first couple of years of the historic Pacific Southwest tennis tournament, in 1927 and 1928, merited only the bare bones of information in the tiny Spalding Tennis Annual, the winners and scores. By the start of the next decade, it became clear the event was something special. Bill Tilden won the first year, followed by Henri Cochet, John Doeg and Ellsworth Vines.