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