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 Wednesday, May 31
No. 1 Agassi starts with easy victory
 
 ESPN.com news services

Results

PARIS -- Anthony Dupuis, a wild card entry ranked 108th, punched the air in delight after slamming a serve past Andre Agassi on set point.

Andre Agassi
Top seed Andre Agassi digs out a backhand against Anthony Dupuis

Alas, the little-known Frenchman hadn't heard a net cord call amid the din from home fans who had started celebrating the prospect of a huge upset.

"I thought I had won the first set," Dupuis said. "That would have changed many things."

Instead, Agassi clung on, saving three set points before clinching the first-set tiebreaker.

"I didn't want to go out and start pulling any triggers, missing shots and not finding my range," Agassi said. "I really wanted to settle into the match."

That's exactly what he did, cruising to a 7-6 (7), 6-3, 6-4 victory in the first round of the French Open on Wednesday.

On set point, Agassi said, he heard the ball hit the net cord "from the second it left his racket."

"Actually I heard it early," he joked. "It was definitely a clear let. But it was a big serve."

The defending Roland Garros champion applauded a brave performance from Dupuis who has never climbed above No. 82 in the world rankings during an undistinguished eight-year pro career.

"The difficulty in the first set was the quality of play on his part because he was stepping up hitting my first service for routine winners," Agassi said. "He was hitting as big as anybody. I had to get him off the plate."

French fans were pleasantly surprised that Dupuis even got to set point.

The clash looked like a colossal mismatch, pairing Agassi -- who has collected a career Grand Slam -- against someone contesting only his fourth Grand Slam tourney match.

But even when defeat seemed inevitable, Dupuis, 27, scampered around the baseline to save two match points.

"Playing a good match against Agassi is something I will remember all my life," he said. "The media makes players like Agassi and Sampras seem as tall as the Himalayas and we feel very small compared to them.

"But when I started playing I thought I really could win. I will never play like Agassi but I know in one match anything can happen."

As the players shook hands at the net, Dupuis told Agassi that he had been waiting to play him for 10 years.

"That," Agassi sighed, "made me feel old."

In other matches, No. 3 Magnus Norman, No. 7 Thomas Enqvist, No. 9 Lleyton Hewitt, and two-time U.S. Open champion Patrick Rafter also won in straight sets. Marcelo Rios, formerly No. 1 in the world and trying to come back from groin surgery in November, retired while trailing Tommy Haas 6-3, 6-2.

No. 4 Yevgeny Kafelnikov reached the third round with a second straight five-set victory, this time over Argentina's Mariano Zabaleta.

No. 6 Cedric Pioline advanced to the second round when Davide Sanguinetti retired with a back injury in the third set after splitting the first two.

No. 10 Alex Corretja survived a five-setter against Fernando Meligeni.

Two-time champion Sergi Bruguera, unseeded this year, lost to Juan Balcells in five sets.

 


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