Krickstein’s Pain Equals Agassi’s Gain Injury Default Ends Semifinal Before Flood Hits Center Court

Andre Agassi reached the Australian Open final today when Aaron Krickstein defaulted with a groin injury moments before several inches of water from a blocked storm drain flooded center court.

If Krickstein had not quit at that moment, trailing 6-4, 6-4, 3-0, the end of the match would have been postponed until Saturday.

“Had he been healthy, we probably would be in a precarious situation playing tomorrow,” the secondseeded Agassi said. “You think when you’ve got a stadium with a roof, you’ve got all the angles covered.”

Agassi, bidding to become the first player in 15 years to win a Grand Slam title without dropping a set, will play top-seeded Pete Sampras for the championship Sunday.

The flood also created the possibility that the rubberized Rebound Ace court won’t be ready for the final, or for Saturday’s women’s final between Arantxa Sanchez Vicario and Mary Pierce. Another court might have to be used.

“I don’t know what they are going to do here because I think they have a serious problem about finishing this tournament on that court,” Agassi’s coach, Brad Gilbert, said. “Once the water gets under a surface like that, when it dries out, the court will bubble. We’ve already seen it happen in various places.”

Agassi expressed sympathy for Krickstein’s sudden injury in his first Grand Slam semifinal since 1989.

“Aaron worked so hard to get this far, he deserved to be out there and be healthy,” Agassi said. “He hurt his groin in the first game of the match. I kind of sensed he wasn’t at his best, so I pulled off a lot of my shots. I made some errors because of lack of concentration on what I was doing. I was more concerned with the other side of the net, unfortunately.”

Krickstein said the groin pull was in the same right leg where his hamstring had been bothering him for several days.

In women’s doubles, Sanchez Vic ario teamed with Jana Novotna to win the championship over Gigi Fernandez and Natasha Zvereva, 6-3, 6-7 (3-7), 6-4.