Agassi shakes off age, bad back to win

Andre Agassi certainly didn’t show his age – or sign of back trouble.

The 35-year-old Agassi won for the first time in almost a year and avenged a loss by defeating Gilles Muller in straight sets Sunday to win his fourth Los Angeles title.

Coming back from a two-month layoff because of a chronic sciatic nerve problem, Agassi downed the young left-hander from Luxembourg 6-4, 7-5 in the Mercedes-Benz Cup final.

“It feels amazing. These moments don’t happen very often any more and I’m taking it in,” Agassi said.

“It’s great to let my game fly and to be eager to scamper after shots you’re not even sure you’re going to get,” he said.

Although the field was depleted by upsets and withdrawals, Agassi capped an impressive run through the tournament that he also won in 1998, 2001 and 2002.

•Kim Clijsters broke serve six times and took advantage of Venus Williams’ erratic game to beat the Wimbledon champion 7-5, 6-2 for the Bank of the West Classic title in Stanford, Calif.

The fourth-seeded Clijsters defeated Williams for only the third time in nine meetings and ended a three-match losing streak to the 25-year-old American, earning her third championship in this event and fourth tourney victory of the season.

•Guillermo Coria won his first ATP title of the season, beating Carlos Moya 6-2, 4-6, 6-2 at the Croatia Open in Umag, Croatia.

•Third-seeded Gaston Gaudio beat Fernando Verdasco 2-6, 6-2, 6-4, 6-4 to win the Generali Open in Kitzbuehel, Austria, in a match that was delayed for two hours by rain.

•Top-seeded Anna Smashnova defeated Colombia’s Catalina Castano 6-2, 6-2 in the final of the Budapest Grand Prix in Budapest, Hungary.

It was the 11th career victory for the 29-year-old Israeli.