(23 July 1996; Day 04)
It took nearly two hours, but top-seeded Andre AGASSI (USA) got through his first Olympic match, narrowly defeating unseeded Jonas BJORKMAN of Sweden, 7-6 (6), 7-6 (5) Tuesday in the first day of tennis competition at Stone Mountain Park.
"It was certainly a close call," AGASSI said after the match. "It was definitely difficult and stayed entirely competitive throughout. But any time you win two tiebreakers you feel pretty fortunate not to be out there playing a third set."
BJORKMAN opened the match with a 3-0 lead over AGASSI after breaking the American's serve in the second game of the match. AGASSI managed to hold serve in game four, but so would the Swede in game five, extending BJORKMAN's first-set lead to 4-1.
"I was trying to get myself to relax a little bit," AGASSI said of his first-set play. "The wind was swirling around pretty good. I wanted to get the match to where it was competitive -- kind of 'physical' my way through the nerves. I managed to get the break back in the middle of the set, but (I was) a little tight and it showed in (my) making some errors."
AGASSI won the next four games to take control of the set at 5-4 before a disputed call forced him to lose his concentration and his serve, bringing the match to an even 5-all. Both players held serve to force a first-set tiebreak, with the American emerging at 8-6 in the breaker with a one-set lead.
The second set was even tighter than the first, as both men held serve until BJORKMAN broke to go up four games to three. AGASSI held serve once more before breaking back late in the second set to even the score at five games apiece.
After struggling with both the wind and an awry forehand late in the set, AGASSI would come back to earn the first of two match points. But BJORKMAN continued to push for a third set, battling back to force the second and final tiebreak.
"I got to (the first) match point and just didn't get aggressive enough" AGASSI said. "There is always a line between how aggressive you can play versus taking unnecessary risk. It would have been nice to break him there (and win the match), but that would have been asking a lot, seeing we really didn't break each other a whole lot (throughout the day)."
The American went to dictate most of the tiebreak, with BJORKMAN playing catch-up each time AGASSI took a one-point lead. AGASSI would then gain a mini break to earn his second match point at 6-5 in the tiebreak before BJORKMAN double-faulted away the final point of the match.
"If all had been fair out there," AGASSI said in his post-match interview, "we would still be playing a third set. So I feel pretty good about getting through that one."
This is an official publication of the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games Sports Publications Department. Written by Melissa Horton.
Select another day:
Pre | July | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | August | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Post |
| Closing Ceremony of the 1996 Games involved a crew of 2,100 who worked with more than 3,500 performers as well as thousands of athletes who celebrated on the field of Olympic Stadium. |