Agassi Ousted After Obscenities

Andre Agassi, leading by a set and seemingly on his way to an easy victory over an unheralded opponent, was defaulted from the Sybase Open on Wednesday night for a series of "audible obscenities."

Agassi, a four-time champion and the second seed in the tournament this year, won the first set 6-0 over qualifier Cecil Mamiit. In a second-set tiebreaker, trailing four points to none, Agassi began cursing.

Agassi said the curses were directed at himself and that he covered his mouth with his hand when he said the last two of his three obscenities.

"I was shocked. I never thought in a million years how that transpired that it would bring an end to the match," Agassi said. "I've personally been involved in acting much worse and have never been involved in anything like this."

Agassi was ejected from the RCA Championships in Indianapolis in 1996 for cursing officials.

Linesman Al Klassen went to chair umpire Steve Ulrich to report Agassi's first comment, and Agassi was warned. As Klassen returned to his chair, Agassi made another comment and was penalized a point.

As Klassen returned to his chair a second time, Agassi repeated his previous obscenity and ATP tour supervisor Tom Barnes was called to the court. He conferred with Ulrich, who defaulted Agassi and awarded the second-round match to Mamiit.

"It's very sad to see if happen," Barnes said. "I'm sad for the players, both of them. I'm sad for Andre. I'm sad for the officials. I'm sad for the fans - they certainly didn't come to hear that."

Barnes said Klassen was simply following procedure when he heard each of the three obscenities. And once they have been reported and the umpire has assessed a warning and a penalty point, Barnes said, there is little choice but to default a player for the third violation.

"It's pretty rare to get to the third step," a dejected Barnes said. "It doesn't happen very often."

Andre Agassi goes belly-up. (AP)

Agassi said he was frustrated by the penalty and repeatedly stressed the words were aimed at himself.

"The words I used were not singling him (Klassen) out at all. I did not start any sentence with `you,"' Agassi said. "Not one other person heard it. I'd be hard-pressed to believe he (Klassen) even heard it clearly."

Agassi said he knew a third code violation in a match results in a default, but that he lost control on the court.

"In the heat of battle, that was a bad decision on my part," he said. "By the ame token, it was a bad decision on the umpire's part and the linesman's part."

Mamiit, who did not hear Agassi's curses, was disappointed the match was over and asked Ulrich if there was any way the match could continue.

"I felt I was cheated. I was playing well. I wanted to find out the end result of the match," said Mamiit, who reached the quarterfinals of an ATP tour event for the first time in his career. "I wanted to continue. I didn't want it to end."

Agassi won his first-round match 6-2, 6-1 Monday night over Todd Woodbridge, and seemed to be heading for another easy win over Mamiit when he made several mistakes to fall behind in the tiebreaker.

Until then, Agassi had been businesslike in the match. He did no clowning or playing to the audience, and seemed to be in a hurry to finish up a match that began 1½ hours late because the afternoon program ran over.

The tantrum came less than a month after a listless Agassi lost to Vince Spadea with a display of uninspired tennis in the fourth round of the Australian Open.

Agassi could face a fine, a loss of ranking points and a loss of prize money earned at the Sybase Open because of the default.

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