INFINITI GETS BOOST BY ADDING AGASSI.Byline: Joe Jares Daily News Staff Writer Next week's Infiniti Open, long on serving power but short on American star power, has remedied that a bit with the late addition of Andre Agassi Andre Kirk Agassi (born April 29 1970, in Las Vegas, Nevada) is a former World No. 1 professional tennis player from the United States who won eight Grand Slam singles tournaments and an Olympic gold medal in singles. to the 32-man singles field. Agassi, a still-glamorous character in the sport who has slipped to No. 31 in the world, lost early this week in a Washington, D.C., tournament, knocked out by Doug Flach Doug Flach (born August 10, 1970 in St. Louis, Missouri) is a former tennis player from the United States, who won two doubles titles during his professional career. The righthander reached his highest individual ranking on the ATP Tour on March 21, 1994, when he became the number . On Thursday, his representatives contacted Bob Kramer of the Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, Tennis Association and learned the Infiniti had one wild-card entry left and grabbed it. Part of the deal is that one of Agassi's charities will get a nice check from the L.A. event, which starts Monday at the L.A. Tennis Center at UCLA UCLA University of California at Los Angeles UCLA University Center for Learning Assistance (Illinois State University) UCLA University of Carrollton, TX and Lower Addison, TX . Agassi will open Tuesday night against former UCLA star Justin Gimelstob Justin Gimelstob (b. 26 January 1977, in Livingston, New Jersey) is an American tennis player. He won the 1998 Australian Open and French Open mixed doubles titles with Venus Williams as his partner. , 20, who upset French Open champ Gustavo Kuerten Gustavo Kuerten (born September 10, 1976 in Florianópolis, Santa Catarina) is a former World No. 1 tennis player from Brazil. He won the French Open three times between 1997 and 2001. at Wimbledon and is poised to break into the world's top 100 (he's at 103). ``A great popcorn match,'' said Aussie Patrick Rafter of that matchup. Translated from the Australian, he said that meant a great match for the spectators. Before Agassi signed up, the Infiniti's big ticket-selling point was the presence of four of the hardest servers on the ATP ATP: see adenosine triphosphate. ATP in full adenosine triphosphate Organic compound, substrate in many enzyme-catalyzed reactions (see catalysis) in the cells of animals, plants, and microorganisms. Tour this year: Australia's Mark Philippoussis, who clocked a serve at 142.3 in May; the Netherlands' Richard Krajicek, 137; Croatia's Goran Ivanisevic, 133, and Sweden's Thomas Enqvist, 128.7. There will be a meter on center court at the Infiniti to clock the serves. The draw for the tournament was held Friday at the L.A. Athletic Club. Top-seed Ivanisevic, No. 3 in the world, is in the top half of the draw with Krajiceck (No. 4 seed), Jim Courier (6) and Agassi (7). Second-seeded Enqvist is in the bottom half with Philippoussis (3), Rafter (5) and Alex O'Brien (8). Four more players will put be in the draw after qualifying ends Sunday afternoon. Before the qualifiers are added, the Infiniti has players from 15 countries - the United States (7), France (4), Australia (3), South Africa (3) and Argentina, Armenia, Brazil, Canada, Croatia, Denmark, Israel, Netherlands, Sweden, Yugoslavia and Zimbabwe. The 16-team doubles draw will be held at noon Sunday at the L.A. Tennis Center. NCAA NCAA abbr. National Collegiate Athletic Association singles and doubles champion Luke Smith of Nevada-Las Vegas has been given a wild card for the doubles, with partner Eric Taino, last season's top player at UCLA. |
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