Agassi Backs Up Talk With an Easy Victory : Tennis: He gives the United States a 1-0 Davis Cup lead by beating Switzerland’s Hlasek in straight sets.

FT. WORTH —  A confident Andre Agassi beat Switzerland’s Jakob Hlasek, 6-1, 6-2, 6-2, giving the United States a 1-0 lead in the best-of-five Davis Cup finals Friday.

Jim Courier, the first American since John McEnroe in 1984 to finish the year ranked No. 1 in the world, faced No. 36 Marc Rosset in the second singles Friday as the U.S. team sought its 30th title in 57 finals. Courier was behind to Rosset in the fifth set, 6-3, 6-7 (9-11), 3-6, 6-4, 4-3, with Rosset up a service break.

Rosset defeated Courier at the Barcelona Olympics this summer on his way to winning the gold medal.

Agassi, ranked ninth, needed only 1 hour 28 minutes to defeat the top Swiss player after boldly predicting it would take an opponent’s best--and luckiest--day of his life to beat him.

Agassi played one of the best matches of his career, delighting the crowd of 12,000 at the Tarrant County Convention Center while quieting the Swiss contingent of 1,200 flag-waving, cowbell-ringing fans hoping to see an upset in Switzerland’s first Davis Cup final.

“Tired?” Agassi said afterward. “No, I wish I could go play Marc Rosset right now.”

Agassi, among the best returners in the game, continually broke a frustrated Hlasek’s serves. The sixth game of the first set went to six deuces before Hlasek, ranked 34th, held serve when Agassi hit a forehand long.

Agassi was particularly accurate on first serves, hitting an extraordinary 81%. He faced only one break point, that in the final game of the match, while Hlasek faced 17 break points.

Agassi’s pressure caused Hlasek to commit 38 unforced errors to 22 for Agassi.

“I really think I was just hitting the ball well,” said Agassi, who won his 10th consecutive Davis Cup match and improved to 19-4 in tennis’ yearly international championship. Hlasek fell to 27-11.

“I think I had him a little frustrated,” Agassi said. “When he came in, I won the point. He stayed back, I controlled the point. I was returning his first serves, hitting the second serves. I mean, there really wasn’t too much I wasn’t doing extremely well today.

“Like I said before the final, they’re going to have to play the match of their lives to beat me here because I know what to expect from myself.”

Hlasek said he tried everything to break Agassi’s spell.

“I know he returns well,” Hlasek said, “so I tried to mix it up. He also had a high percentage of first serves, so I wasn’t able to attack his second serve. . . . I just did not play at a high enough level to beat Andre.”

But Hlasek said he wasn’t discouraged.

“This is a team event,” he said. “Just the first chapter has been written.”

Hlasek and Rosset will meet No. 20 McEnroe and No. 3 Pete Sampras today in doubles. In Sunday’s reverse singles, it’s Courier against Hlasek and Agassi against Rosset.

The finals are being played on Plexi-Court, a fast, synthetic surface that benefits the aggressive ground stroke games of Courier and Agassi.

In reaching the finals for the first time, Switzerland upset The Netherlands and defending champion France on the road before blanking Brazil in Geneva.

The United States, upset by the French last year, returned to the finals with victories over Argentina, Czechoslovakia and Sweden.