FRENCH OPEN / MEN : Sampras, Agassi Offer a Match for the Gourmet

By ELLIOTT ALMOND

June 2, 1992 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

PARIS — If Paris is, indeed, a movable feast, then two young men with big appetites for championship tennis will be gorging themselves when they meet today at Roland Garros Stadium.

Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi, two of the United States’ brightest talents, raced into the quarterfinals of the French Open on Monday with impressive straight-set victories over respected players.

Sampras, saying he played his best match on clay, defeated Carl-Uwe Steeb of Germany, 6-4, 6-3, 6-2. Agassi, winning his third straight-set match here, swept Emilio Sanchez of Spain, 6-1, 6-3, 7-5.

Their styles, and substance, are as different as clay courts and hard courts, but both are ready for the first big showdown of the two-week tournament.

Sampras is seeded third, Agassi, 11th, but he of dangling earring and head scarf will be favored on the red clay because Sampras prefers faster surfaces. Agassi, 22, has said for the last 10 days that he has recovered from an early-season lull in which he dropped out of the top 10 rankings.

His play in four matches here indicates he has. Last winter, Agassi was routed by Sanchez at an Assn. of Tennis Professionals tournament at Indian Wells.

“A few weeks ago, I never thought he would play like this,” Sanchez said.

This Agassi seems invincible as he mounts a campaign for his first Grand Slam title. He lost in the French Open final the last two years.

His goal will not be easily attained against Sampras, the 1990 U.S. Open champion. Sampras, 21, a serve-and-volley player from the hard courts of the Palos Verdes Peninsula, has emphasized his clay-court game this year. As a result, he has surprised more than a few by reaching the quarterfinals.

“I wouldn’t have guessed he would have made it,” Agassi said, adding that he would not be surprised to lose today.

To reach Friday’s semifinals, Sampras will have to utilize his most effective weapon--a 120-m.p.h. serve. Monday, the serve was laser sharp, and Steeb had little chance to react.

Sampras passed up some hard-surface tournaments to play half a dozen clay tournaments this spring in preparation for Roland Garros. After so much time in the dirt, he is learning to like it.

“A little,” he said.

Because he is used to playing points quickly, he has had to downshift his game. Between points, Sampras tells himself to remain patient.

“I keep telling myself to hit 20, 30 balls on a point,” he said. “(But) I’m not going to beat a lot of guys from the backcourt.”

Next to the flamboyant Agassi, Sampras is conservative in appearance. A lanky, olive-skinned man who covers the court with loping strides, Sampras said his serve will have to be perfect today.

“Andre has one of the best return of serves in the game,” he said. “I don’t want to be hitting second serves and hitting from the backcourt.”

The last time he played Agassi, last month in the AT&T; Challenge final in Atlanta, Sampras lost. He also was eliminated in the quarterfinals of the Italian Open two weeks before Paris.

With such results, he was on the long list to reach the quarterfinals. And now that he’s here, no one will count him out.