WORLD number two Andre Agassi's argument with a spiral staircase nearly cost him a second round berth at the Australian Open yesterday.
The defending champion, who was hampered by a knee injury sustained when he stumbled into an iron rail as he climbed his hotel stairs on Sunday, struggled to beat lowly ranked Argentinian qualifier Gaston Etlis on the opening day at Flinders Park.
Agassi finally triumphed 3-6, 7-6, 4-6, 7-6, 6-3 after three hours and 18 minutes but he admitted afterwards that he would almost certainly have made an early exit from the year's first Grand Slam event if his inexperienced opponent had taken his opportunities.
Etlis, aged 21 and ranked only 133 in the world, is a clay court specialist playing in his first ever Grand Slam. And he was twice within two points of installing Agassi as the first defending Grand Slam champion to lose in the first round to a qualifier, only to allow the 25 year old Las Vegan to stage a fighting centre court comeback.
Roscoe Tanner is the only man in Grand Slam history to have gone out in the first round whilst defending his title at the Australian Open in 1977 and Agassi looked to be following him as Etlis served for the match at 5-3 in the fourth set before leading the subsequent tie break 5-3 only for his nerve to fail.
"He was getting pretty creative in finding ways to lose the match," second seeded Agassi said afterwards with his damaged knee packed in ice. "I felt a bit limited about what I could do," admitted the American, who added that the injury forced him to ration his movement on court.
Agassi was confident, however, that he would be fit for his second round match against 94th ranked fellow American Vince Spadea, saying "I think come Wednesday I will be alright."
Agassi's labours would have been avidly watched by seeded compatriots Michael Chang and Jim Courier, both of whom had straight sets victories in their first round matches and are in Agassi's half of the draw.
World number five Chang was ruthlessly efficient in his 6-2, 6-1, 6-2 demolition of the Czech Republic's David Rikl, while Courier was a little more stretched in his 7-5, 7-6, 6-4 defeat of Belgium's Johan Van Herck.
Chang hardly raised a sweat in beating the 85th ranked Rikl in only 90 minutes to back his belief that both top seed and world number one Pete Sampras and Agassi are beatable this year.
"It was a good first match for me, 1 got to hit a lot of balls," said 23 year old Chang, who lost to Sampras in the last year's semifinal.
Chang will meet Switzerland's Jakob Hlasek in the second round while Courier comes up against compatriot Jeff Tarango, who beat Australia's Paul Kilderry in straight sets.
The 74th ranked Tarango, 27, who caused outrage when he stormed off the court at Wimbledon last year, was perfectly behaved after a ban on him competing in the Australian Open was overturned following an apology last month for his extraordinary walk off.
Sampras, who missed the Colonial Classic with a bad bout of flu, opens his campaign today with a match against Australia's Richard Fromberg.
Apart from Agassi, only ninth seeded Wayne Ferreira struggled. The South African took five sets to beat American Jonathan Stark after cruising to a two sets to love lead.
