TENNIS ROUNDUP : Agassi Survives Challenge to Beat Kinnear, 7-6, 7-5

Andre Agassi had to overcome a challenge from the 314th-ranked player in the world before advancing in the U.S. Hardcourts tournament at Indianapolis.

Agassi was pressed before defeating qualifier Kent Kinnear, 7-6 (7-5), 7-5, Wednesday.

The night match started to get away from Kinnear when he netted a wide-open overhead while leading, 3-1, in the second set.

Top-seeded Boris Becker spent more time waiting than he did playing, defeating David Pate, 6-3, 6-2, in a rain-delayed second-round match.

“I was just outclassed,” said Pate, ranked 115th on the pro tour and matched with the world’s top-ranked player.

The match took 1 hour 15 minutes but started late and was interrupted after three games for 2 hours 37 minutes.

In other matches, fifth-seeded Pete Sampras beat Grant Stafford 6-4, 6-2; No. 6 David Wheaton defeated Aaron Krickstein, 6-4, 7-5, and No. 10 Alexander Volkov of the Soviet Union defeated Shuzo Matsuoka of Japan, 7-6 (7-5), 6-2.

Becker, who has won the tournament two of the past three years, was leading, 2-1, when play was halted. Pate held in the first game after play resumed, but was broken in the sixth game and Becker quickly took a 5-2 lead on his way to winning the set.

“Somehow I have had a good experience with rain delays,” Becker said. “Most of the time it brought me luck, and I hoped it would be the same case this time. Right away I had two break points and so I started right away good.”

John McEnroe showed flashes of the game he has been looking for--and his anger that so often goes with it--as he put an end to Luiz Mattar’s upset bid with a solid third set at the Volvo International in New Haven, Conn.

McEnroe, who had never played the 27-year-old Brazilian before, was caught off guard at first, but won, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.

“I knew he was a solid all-around player, but I didn’t know he was that solid a serve-and-volley player,” McEnroe said. “It took me a while to get going.”

In other matches, top-seeded Stefan Edberg of Sweden defeated MaliVai Washington, 6-4, 6-4; No. 2 Ivan Lendl beat Arnaud Boetsch of France, 6-2, 6-2; Paul Haarhuis of the Netherlands upset No. 8 Andrei Chesnokov of the Soviet Union, 7-6 (7-5), 3-6, 7-5, and No. 10 Michael Chang downed Amos Mansdorf of Israel, 7-5, 6-2.

Sixth-seeded Richey Reneberg advanced when Paul Annacone withdrew because of an injury.