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  EDWARD LIN/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Andre Agassi lunges for a shot by Greg Rusedski in Thursday night's match.

By Jeff Agase

Daily Bruin Reporter

It was Andre versus the giant and some enormously controversial calls.

Thursday night at the Los Angeles Tennis Center, a packed house watched No. 3 seeded and 5 ft. 11 Andre Agassi defeat 6 ft. 4 Greg Rusedski, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, in the second round of the Mercedes-Benz Cup.

The match began with Rusedski fuming over the chair umpire’s overruling of an “in” call on one of Rusedski’s blazing serves. A linesman had made the close call earlier in the match.

“I got a lot of real tough calls in the first set,” Rusedski said. “I thought that the overrules were really bad. If it is a clear mistake, then you overrule, if it’s not a clear mistake you don’t overrule.”

Part of Rusedski’s frustration stemmed from the third game of the match, where he saw a triple break point opportunity dissolve with an overrule. After forcing deuce, Agassi took the game.

Another overrule at 3-2 with Rusedski serving gave Agassi his third breakpoint of the game, on which he capitalized to go up 4-2. Agassi held his remaining service games to win the first set 6-3.

But Rusedski held fast to his blistering serve and volley game, acing Agassi to win the first game of the second set. He followed it up with a break of Agassi’s serve at love to go up 2-0 and seemingly put himself into solid position.

Rusedski’s game forced the baseliner Agassi to retune his usual style.

“Greg lets you get away with shots that aren’t that good,” Agassi said.“You’re forced to play your game differently. He kind of tempts you into playing aggressive tennis.”

And Agassi did just that. Facing Rusedski’s vaunted serve and already down a break, Agassi ate up Rusedski’s high-kicking second serve en route to a break of his own.

Suddenly, Rusedski abandoned his pattern of slicing low backhands to Agassi. Liberally applying topspin to backhands, Rusedski outlasted Agassion a long rally at set point to win the second set at 6-4.

The crowd, expecting a straight set Agassi win, rose to its feet in anticipation of an intense third and deciding set.

While Rusedski showed an uncommon ability to hang with Agassi from the baseline, Agassi maintained a level of control by moving his opponent back and forth across the court. Fatigue began to set in, and Agassi broke Rusedski at 4-4. He served the match out by the count of 6-4.

“When you play for two hours and you get that one chance against your opponent and seize it, it’s a great feeling,” Agassi said. “I was able to get to his legs and dictate the match on my own terms.”

After the match, Rusedski was decidedly less upset about the line calls and preferred to focus on a great hardcourt warm-up for the upcoming U.S. Open.

“The crowd got what they wanted,” he said. “They got a great match and they got Andre through to the next round.”

Agassi will next face fellow American and No. 5 seed Jan-Michael Gambill this afternoon in the quarterfinals.