ANDRE AGASSI, the third seed and defending champion, put himself in position to claim his first title of 1996 by advancing to the final of the Lipton Championships at Key Biscayne in Florida for the third year in a row.

Agassi scored a 6-4, 6-3 victory over 15th seeded Frenchman Arnaud Boetsch in one hour and 24 minutes in yesterday's first men's semi final.

"It's nice to be in the finals playing my tennis again. I really feel like I'm hitting the ball clean, going for my shots with a lot of confidence," said Agassi.

Today's women's final pits top seed and two time defending champion Steffi Graf against sixth seeded Chanda Rubin, who won their semi finals.

Agassi and Boetsch had met just once before in 1990 at the French Open, a match the Frenchman still remembers vividly. "He killed me," recalled Boetsch of that 6-3, 6-2, 6-0 drubbing nearly six years ago.

The first set featured erratic play from both players with five service breaks in the first six games as Agassi sprayed 20 unforced errors and Boetsch 18.

Agassi used his superior return skills to take advantage of Boetsch's poor first serve success rate.