TENNIS ROUNDUP : Agassi Gives It Away, Then Takes It Back

If Andre Agassi makes it to No. 1 in the world, he can look back at the Volvo tournament in San Francisco as a lesson in how to get there.

Agassi recovered after blowing three match points in the second set and defeated No. 2-seeded Brad Gilbert, 6-2, 6-7 (7-4), 6-2, Sunday night to win the title.

It was the 19th career singles title for the top-seeded Agassi, who had lost three consecutive times to Gilbert.

“What I had here was total commitment,” Agassi said. “There are times when you don’t play good tennis and you still have to pull something together to win. Today was a good example of that.”

Gilbert, from nearby San Rafael, committed 48 unforced errors compared to 26 for Agassi.

Gilbert was down double match point at 3-5, 15-40 in the second set. But Agassi served two double faults and Gilbert went on to win the set in a tiebreaker.

However, Agassi regained control in the final set. He broke Gilbert in the first game and coasted from there.

“I was really working hard to get to match point, and I just wanted to finish it,” Agassi said. “If there’s ever a time to go for it, it’s when you’re up like that.”

Before the final, Agassi had been broken only once in four tournament matches. Gilbert broke him twice in the second set and three times in the tiebreaker.

Gilbert has not won a tournament since 1990.

“It’s definitely depressing,” Gilbert said. “I would have liked to have put it to rest here. But if I keep getting into the semis and finals, I feel like I can give myself a good chance for something to happen.”

Gilbert beat Agassi in the 1991 semifinals here and defeated him again at the 1992 Paris Open.

“The last time he played me was the most embarrassed I’d ever been on a tennis court,” Agassi said. “I couldn’t find the strings. I vowed it would never happen again.”

Olympic champion Marc Rosset of Switzerland defeated Jan Siemerink of the Netherlands, 6-2, 7-6 (7-1), to win at Marseille, France.

Rosset was returning from a monthlong layoff after severe flu. He had to drop out of his first match of the year at the Qatar tournament and missed the Australian Open.

Elna Reinach defeated Caroline Kuhlman, 6-0, 6-0, in 43 minutes to win the Amway Classic at Auckland, New Zealand.

Reinach, a South African, then partnered with Isabelle Demongeot of France to beat Jill Hetherington and Kathy Rinaldi, 6-2, 6-4, in the doubles final.

Fabrice Santoro of France and Karel Novacek of the Czech Republic won their semifinals in the Dubai Open in the United Arab Emirates.

The eighth-seeded Santoro defeated unseeded Jeremy Bates, 6-2, 6-3, and the third-seeded Novacek defeated No. 2 Thomas Muster 7-5, 6-4.

North Carolina’s Roland Thornqvist edged Georgia’s Mike Sell for the men’s National Indoor Intercollegiate title, and Stanford’s Heather Willens downed teammate Kim Shasby for the women’s crown at Eden Prairie, Minn.