Wimbledon Is a No-Go for Agassi

Former Wimbledon champion Andre Agassi will sit out the tournament for the first time since 1997 because of a lingering hip problem, his management agency told The Times on Monday.

His withdrawal comes as yet another blow for the injury-ravaged tournament.

Wimbledon, which starts Monday, had already lost the top two female players in the world, Belgians Justine Henin-Hardenne because of a lingering virus and Kim Clijsters because of a left wrist injury. Additionally, Gustavo Kuerten of Brazil and French Open champion Gaston Gaudio of Argentina pulled out last week because of injuries, although neither had been expected to make a big impact on grass.

Agassi, who turned 34 in April, appeared to have every intention of playing Wimbledon. He took a wild card into a tune-up tournament at Queen’s Club, lost in the first round to Igor Andreev of Russia last week, returned home and has been spending time in Southern California. The 60th-ranked Andreev had been making his grass-court debut.

The hip has been bothering Agassi but does not appear to be a long-term issue of serious concern. He is expected to take off a week or two.

Agassi’s next tournament would be the Mercedes-Benz Cup at UCLA, which starts July 12.

After a strong start in 2004 -- he reached the semifinals at the Australian Open, losing to Marat Safin of Russia in five sets, and losing to Roger Federer in three sets in the Indian Wells semifinals -- Agassi has struggled.

Except for one small event in Austria, Agassi sat out most of the European clay-court season leading up to the French Open, then lost in the first round to little-known Jerome Haehnel of France at Roland Garros.

He has lost in his opening match in his last three tournaments, and last won at the Masters Series event in Key Biscayne, Fla., in late March.

Since Agassi began making regular appearances at Wimbledon in 1991, this will be only the second time he won’t be appearing at the All England Club.

The other time was in 1997, but that was the year when his ranking dropped to 141st in the world and he played in only one of the four Grand Slam tournaments, the U.S. Open.

Wimbledon was the scene of Agassi’s Grand Slam breakthrough.

He won his first major in 1992 at Wimbledon, and he lost to Pete Sampras in the final in 1999 and reached the semifinals three other times.

Last year, he exited in the fourth round at Wimbledon, losing to Mark Philippoussis of Australia in five sets. This will also be the first time since 1988 that neither Sampras nor Agassi is playing Wimbledon. Sampras, who did not play Wimbledon last year, officially retired in August 2003.