Agassi sends a reminder to the younger set
Christopher Clarey International Herald Tribune
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2005
NEW YORK The better moment for Andre Agassi may be yet to come at this U.S.
Open.
Yet whatever happens against Robby Ginepri in the semifinal round or perhaps
even Roger Federer in the final round, Agassi has given himself the sort of
buzz that validates his decision to keep putting his 35-year-old body through
the wringer against the younger, quicker, ever-more-powerful set.
When you have won eight Grand Slam singles titles and played scores of big
matches in various time zones, it is no mean feat to add to your greatest
hits list in the quarterfinals of a major. But Agassi's 3-6, 3-6, 6-3, 6-3,
7-6 (8-6) victory over James Blake, which began Wednesday night and ended
very early Thursday morning, was - without question - one of the most
dramatic and satisfying of his 20-year career.
"Pretty amazing," Agassi said. "I don't know if I can put in context how this
compares with some of my greatest experiences on the tennis court, but I know
it's right up there, because this is what you work so hard for."
As the seventh-seeded Agassi gradually erased a two-set deficit and then
rallied again in the fifth set, it was difficult for longtime Agassi
observers not to let their minds spin back to other flash points in his
career: to the 1992 Wimbledon final where, with his still-long hair flowing
out of his cap, he managed to ambush Goran Ivanisevic on the grass for his
first significant title; to the 1999 French Open final, where with a full
beard and increasingly wide eyes, he managed to wipe out another two-set
disadvantage against Andrei Medvedev and win the only major trophy missing
from his collection.
The match Wednesday (and Thursday) had less urgency to it. At 35, with a wife
and two young children and millions upon millions in the bank, Agassi is not
playing the game with the same acquisitional objectives. He maintains that it
is more about process now: about exercising the craft and enjoying the
point-by-point challenges. Blake, with his phenomenal quickness and often
enormous groundstrokes and returns, presented plenty: particularly in the
first two and a half sets when his barely controlled risks kept paying off
and jerking Agassi from corner to corner.
"To be honest, with the way a mentality like mine sort of works, this means
as much to me as doing it in the finals," Agassi said. "This is what it's
about. It's about just authentic competition, just getting out there and
having respect for the other person and letting it fly and letting it be just
about the tennis.
"Unfortunately, it doesn't happen as often as you'd like. Two guys need to
play well and then the balls need to fall at the right place at the right
time to create that sort of drama, and it all came together tonight."
The match's magnetic appeal did not lie entirely with the tennis, however. It
was also about the back stories. Agassi is playing on borrowed time, having
resorted to multiple cortisone injections - most recently last month - to
calm the pain caused by an inflamed nerve in his lower back. Unable to move
or swing away without discomfort, he lost in the first round of the French
Open and withdrew from Wimbledon. But with help from his coach Darren Cahill
and fitness trainer and friend Gil Reyes, Agassi has been able to push
himself to the five-set limit in his last two matches.
Blake, an unseeded 25-year-old who was a regular spectator at the Open as a
youngster growing up in Connecticut, only made it into this tournament after
receiving a wild card. After breaking into the top 25 in 2003, he fell out of
the top 100 in 2004 when he had to cope with both physical and psychological
blows.
But Blake has roared back this summer on American hardcourts and after
upsetting No. 2 seed Rafael Nadal and No. 19 seed Tommy Robredo here, he came
into the match with Agassi playing the best, most focused tennis of his life.
The crowd greeted both players with warmth, and it was only in the final
stages of this match, as an appreciation for Agassi's staying power
increased, that the majority of the crowd were clearly and audibly leaning in
the elder American's direction.
Blake served for the match at 5-4 in the fifth set and started with an ace
but then lost the next three points as Agassi took control with return
winners or returns that forced errors. At 15-40, Agassi hit a forehand that
clipped the net cord and landed in. Blake ripped a forehand down the line
that landed just wide. That was a harbinger of shots to come.
Though Blake took a 3-0 lead in the ensuing tiebreaker and still led 5-4 with
two of his own serves to come, Agassi held firm. He made it 5-5 with a
forehand return winner off a second serve and then took the lead 6-5 when
Blake just missed another huge forehand.
Blake saved Agassi's first match point with a forehand winner, but Agassi
then showed just how fresh he still was despite the years and the injury
fears by winning an extended exchange. He hit a backhand drop shot that Blake
reached and then ripped a backhand down the line, a passing shot for a winner
that left some in the crowd jerking their hands to their heads in disbelief.
Agassi had another match point, and after Blake missed his first serve,
Agassi guessed right on the second and nailed a clean forehand return winner.
At the net, after the handshake, Blake said to him, "It couldn't have been
more fun to lose."
It could not have been much more fun to watch, either. "Let me just first say
this," Agassi said in his post-match remarks to the crowd. "It's 1:15 in the
morning and for 20,000 people to still be here, I wasn't the winner, tennis
was."
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