With No Hair Apparent, Agassi Shows Off His Smooth Move

It was a hair-raising day at the All-England Club, where the burning question of the Wimbledon fortnight has been Andre Agassi's . . .

Serve? Not even close. Earrings? Nope. Hairstyle? No, but you're getting warmer.

The answer is body hair.

Agassi wants to talk about body hair. Agassi enjoys talking about body hair.

"Wouldn't you?" he said. "Monday, everyone asked me tennis questions. I thought something was really wrong."

Yesterday, the only question anyone wanted answered was: Had he been waxed, plucked or shaved?

The controversy began with a front-page before-and-after photo spread in the previous day's Daily Star, one of London's racy tabloids. The "before" shot showed Agassi last year pulling up his shirt and revealing a strip of thick, dark hair. The "after" photo showed him doing the same thing, but revealing a belly as hairless as a baby's bottom.

That sounded a hair-raid siren.

He joined in the fun yesterday, changing his shirt directly in front of photographers. Cameras clicked. The crowd went ape. Agassi smiled.

At the post-match press conference, Agassi admitted removing his body hair - his legs and arms appear to be hairless, too - but wouldn't say how or why.

Razor? Wax? Depilatory? He wasn't saying. "It's a secret . . . I might try to market it. It's painless, that's why it's so special. But it's not patented yet."

GREEN PARTY MUFFLES RACERS

Formula One teams will have to use engine mufflers when testing their cars at the Ferrari track because of a ruling by a court in Imola, Italy.

Judge Ezio Roi issued the decision on an action brought by the Green Party, an environmental group, which has campaigned against the noise level at the Imola autodrome. Autodrome officials said the order did not apply to racing days.

PRO FOOTBALL TO HONOR GOWDY

Sportscaster Curt Gowdy, who has covered sports events on radio and television for almost five decades, is the winner of the Pro Football Hall of Fame's Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award. The award is given annually in recognition of longtime exceptional contributions to radio and television in pro football.

Gowdy will be formally honored July 30 in Canton, Ohio. Gowdy has covered eight Super Bowls, 12 Rose Bowls, eight Olympics and 16 World Series.

KNIGHT-TIME FOR SORRY HOOSIER

Bet this scene wasn't in the movie "Hoosiers."

Sherron Wilkerson, Indiana's Mr. Basketball for 1992-93, has apologized to Indiana All-Star team officials for quitting the squad after last Saturday's 107-91 loss to Kentucky.

Wilkerson yelled at teammates, then pouted when taken out in the second half, lying on the floor at the end of the bench. After leading Indiana with 14 points and six rebounds, he bolted from the locker room still wearing the No. 1 jersey signifying him as the state's best player.

"He's a troubled young man," game director Pat Aikman said. "He tries to manipulate people."

What's next for Wilkerson? A basketball scholarship at Indiana University. His coach? The mercurial Bob Knight.

OX IDOLIZED

From Track & Field News: "Nike head Phil Knight says that in a recent poll of Chinese high-school students asked to name the world's greatest man, it was `a tie between Chou En-Lai and Michael Jordan of the Chicago Red Oxen.' "