[News]Agassi comes back to reach final
Agassi comes back to reach final
By HOWARD FENDRICH, AP Tennis Writer
November 15, 2003
HOUSTON (AP) -- Andre Agassi has plenty of energy, and he's needed it this
week.
Storming back with an eight-game run after dropping a set, Agassi beat Rainer
Schuettler 5-7, 6-0, 6-4 Saturday to reach the Tennis Masters Cup final.
All four of the 33-year-old Agassi's matches have gone the distance, and now
he's the oldest finalist at the tour's year-end championship since Arthur
Ashe was the runner-up at 35 in 1978.
Agassi would be the event's oldest champion; Ilie Nastase was 29 in 1975.
U.S. Open champion Andy Roddick met Wimbledon champion Roger Federer in the
second semifinal Saturday.
Agassi's 6-2, 6-2, 6-1 victory over Schuettler at the Australian Open in
January was the most lopsided Grand Slam title match in nearly two decades
and that tournament's shortest final since 1926.
Their match Saturday was much tighter, with both players mostly content to
slug it out from the baseline once they got on court. Rain began falling
about 10 minutes before the scheduled start, and play was delayed for 1
hour, 40 minutes.
The first set was even in just about every discernible way through 10 games,
with neither player managing a break point. Schuettler held to 6-5, then
finally got through to Agassi's serve. The German earned the match's first
break point with a perfectly disguised slice drop shot, then converted it
and claimed the set with a deep crosscourt backhand return that set up a
forehand winner.
But with Schuettler serving at 40-15 in the second set's opening game, Agassi
quickly turned things around. He got to 40-30 with a backhand return winner,
and then Schuettler let his racket slip away -- along with the match.
On Schuettler's serving motion, the racket flew out of his right hand,
skidding along the purple court and stopping 5 feet away.
The serve landed in, though, and Agassi returned it into the open court. All
Schuettler could do was playfully kick at the ball.
That made the score deuce, and an errant ground stroke by Schuettler handed
Agassi his first break point of the day. Schuettler tried a drop shot, but
Agassi chugged all the way up from the baseline, exhaling loudly all the way,
and smacked a deep backhand to the corner. Schuettler got there, but his
forehand slapped into the net.
That began Agassi's eight-game roll, through the shutout of the second set
-- he saved four break points at 5-0 -- and to a 2-0 lead in the third.
Schuettler responded, however, to grab a 3-2 edge, including a break in the
fourth game with the help of three backhand errors in a row by Agassi.
Agassi dug deep to regain control, putting pressure on Schuettler's ground
strokes and breaking to 4-3 when Schuettler put a backhand in the net and
sailed two forehands wide.
All Agassi had to do now was hold serve twice and he did, closing the match
with a forehand winner.
He came to Houston after a two-month break, in part because his wife, Steffi
Graf, gave birth to their second child in early October. Thanks to that rest,
and his always-superb conditioning, Agassi will end the season playing for
a title.
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