Andre Agassi, A True Champion Options

[vivekpm]

This sub-forum has been very silent and most of the time we have discussed pursuits of Sania Mirza.

While there are many upcoming stars in this sport, here is one person who still stands tall - at 35 years of age and after playing for more than two decades. While most players of his age are either doing commentary or taking part in Over 35 masters, he still loves to throw challenges to the younger generation.

Andre Agassi showed today why he will be considered as a legend in Tennis. From 2 sets and a break down, Agassi played an inspirational game to reach the semi-finals of US Open 2005.

Here is the match-report from rediff

We've seen his breathtaking return of serve. We've seen his punishing groundstrokes. We've seen him fall into obscurity and rise to greatness. We've seen him overcome a dislike for Wimbledon and become the heart of Centre Court. What we saw on Thursday at the US Open was the sheer resolve that's made Andre Agassi possible.

He leapt, he stretched, he screwed his face in frustration, but never gave up.

Against him was a man equally inspired. James Blake had come out successful from emotional and physical trauma that was heaped upon him last year. He was looking in great touch, had a better serve than Agassi and even a return that would see the old man turn green.

Agassi had no answers to Blake's baseline play. The errors, especially on the forehand, were on the rise. And in an hour he had conceded the first two sets, 3-6, 3-6. Then he lost his serve early in the third set. But another brave effort from the Las Vegan was ready to unfold under the floodlights of the Arthur Ashe stadium.

If anyone had to comeback from a hole like this, it had to be Agassi. He may be seeded seventh, is the crowd favourite, but all know that every round he wins is a bonus at the age of 35. The depth of men's tennis does not provide any place to hide.

We're not sure how his body can take the physical rigours of a tough campaign like the US Open. He had been stretched in the first three rounds and survived a five-setter from Xavier Malisse in the fourth round.

At the French Open this year, he walked back in pain after losing to Jarkko Niemenen in the first round in five sets. He had to take injections to stay in prime condition for a Grand Slam and was not sure how long he could keep doing it.

As he showed against Blake, he could still do it.

In the middle of the third set, he found enough motivation to defy the odds once more. He broke the Blake serve twice to win the third set. The 25 year old had started grunting after Agassi hit the ball deep from end to end.

Not a sound from his senior opponent. He was working his way around this tenacious player, who, with a spirited return to professional tennis, ensured as much crowd support as Agassi.

His eight Grand Slams notwithstanding, Agassi proved that he is a champion in mind and body.

For two sets he outmaneuvered Blake. He even matched Blake physically. The winners started to fall inches inside the line, the aces were coming handy and even the line calls started going his way. Breaking Blake's serve in the ninth game of the set, Agassi also captured the fourth set, 6-3.

Agassi could afford himself a smile now. The fightback was not complete but he was able to make a match out of it when defeat seemed inevitable.

Agassi and Blake walk off courtAs he would have expected, Blake wasn't going to take it lying down. After well over two hours both Americans were ready to chase down the ball just to survive another go at it. Agassi's legs had to find strength for another battle.

The momentum was now with Blake, who started to gun for the baseline. He produced a couple of winners to break Agassi in the third game of the set and take a 2-1 lead. The game went on serve till 5-4 in favour of Blake and now he was serving for the match.

Agassi was hanging by his shirt, playing a high-risk game even as the unforced errors started to mount. It was pure courage when he went for a backhand down the line, which creamed the corner and set up two break-points for him in the tenth game.

He won the game and levelled the set 5-5. Two easy service games and both Americans were sending down jitters in the crowd at one in the morning. The match hung at 6-6, ready for a tie-break.

Blake began on a high, winning the first three points, but, in the end, it was Agassi who lapped it at 8-6.

Triumph, satisfaction, fatigue was written over his face as he rushed to congratulate his opponent. Their meeting at the net was as endearing as the three hours they spent on either side of it. The two great competitors didn't need any prodding to appreciate the epic they had just created.

The match was a slugfest but both men came out with respect for each other. They never let the `heat of the moment' take over and it was to their credit that of the many dubious line calls not one was questioned.

Blake had made it clear enough before the match that Agassi was one of his idols and there would be no shame losing to a player like him. Agassi may have given him one more reason to believe so.

Hats off to Agassi

[unni]

From the NEW YORK TIMES web edition:

Sports of The Times
In the Annals of Tennis, the Father Figure Is Big

By GEORGE VECSEY
Published: September 11, 2005

WHEN Andre Agassi was an infant, his father hung a makeshift mobile of tennis balls over his crib. One of the child's earliest sights, therefore, was fuzzy little spheroids, waiting to be swatted.

Thirty-five years later, that stimulus continues to pay off. Agassi, the wise old gnome of tennis, advanced to the final of the United States Open yesterday with a 6-4, 5-7, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 victory over Robby Ginepri, who first hit balls with his father at age 5 - a little late for tennis prodigies, of course.

Right afterward, Roger Federer and Lleyton Hewitt, whose fathers introduced them to tennis, met in the second semifinal, with Federer dismantling Hewitt, 6-3, 7-6 (0), 4-6, 6-3, with his staggering mix of consistency and artistry.

Last night, Kim Clijsters and Mary Pierce, with polar opposite paternal histories, met for the women's championship, with the supple Clijsters winning her first Grand Slam tournament, 6-3, 6-1.

Everybody knows about Jim Pierce, the tennis father beyond stereotype, who was stopped only by court order from badgering his daughter.

But there is another side to tennis fathers: this Open has been graced not only by James Blake's run to the quarterfinals, but also by his tribute to his father, Thomas, who died 14 months ago.

Then there is Leo Clijsters, who played about 40 times for the Belgian national soccer team and has been a mentor for his daughter, who is known as the nicest person on the women's tour.

Last night, Clijsters won the largest prize in the history of women's tennis: a 100 percent bonus that raised her earnings to $2.2 million for these two weeks' work.

Clijsters learned, early on, to respect money, from her mother, Els, a former star gymnast (who probably contributed the frightening hamstring-challenging splits her daughter is able to perform) and her father, now a soccer coach in Belgium.

"It's an expensive sport," the daughter said Friday, recalling her parents saying, "If you enjoy it, we're happy to pay for it, but give yourself 100 percent out there."

Her father had six knee operations from soccer, she said, adding that his resiliency prepared her for her own wrist injury a year ago. Last night, Clijsters thanked her mother and family members in her seats, but also thanked her father, who was in Belgium, watching.

Pierce and her father are now reconciled, mostly from a distance, and she is a reconstructed 30-year-old who speaks often of her religious faith.

She managed to annoy her semifinal opponent, Elena Dementieva, by coming up with not one but two claimed injuries on Friday, thereby gaining a 12-minute break with the trainer immediately after Dementieva won the first set.

Another combative father was Mike Agassi, who boxed for the Iranian Olympic team and resettled in Las Vegas, where he was a captain in one of the prominent gambling dens. Andre Agassi's early clueless, popinjay image might indeed have been a reaction to his father's demands.

"My father will be on his deathbed," Agassi has said, "and he'll teach a parrot to say, 'Andre, work on your serve,' and then he'll die a happy man."

Agassi has also told how he was shipped off to Nick Bollettieri's tennis barracks in Florida at age 13: "My father saw this story on Nick on '60 Minutes' where it showed him making these little kids cry and everything, and thought that was the place for me."

Now a father of two, Agassi melted yesterday when he met up with his 23-month-old daughter, Jaz Elle, in the runway after his victory. (He and his wife, Steffi Graf - herself the product of a domineering father - have participated in a commercial depicting them picking up their son, Jaden Gil, not quite 4, from a tennis drill.)

"I'll never have more pressure on me than I have when I clip my little girl's fingernails," Agassi said.

Agassi's opponent yesterday, Ginepri, was introduced to tennis in Marietta, Ga., by his father, Rene, who was born in Luxembourg. And Hewitt and Federer - as opposite as, say, Australia and Switzerland - were each encouraged to play tennis by their fathers.

Hewitt's father, Glynn, played some professional rules football, but Lleyton was destined to grow to only 170 pounds and 5 feet 11 inches, so he played tennis.

Federer's father, Robert, a chemical salesman, used to bring his son to a tennis club outside Basel, Switzerland, but his main contribution was as a silent chauffeur. Hard as it is to believe, the courtly young champion once threw major tantrums on the court. On drives home from tournaments, Robert would not speak to Roger, letting the boy stew in his misery.

As the son matured, Robert Federer gave him plenty of space, missing his first two Wimbledon championships because he was watching the family house, or the family cat, depending on who is telling the story. This year the father went to Wimbledon for the third straight title.

"It was nice to have Dad there," Federer said. "He is very enthusiastic and hyper when he watches me."

Tennis is theoretically the loneliest sport. But most players are in the psychological shadows of the parents who first handed them a racket - or hung a tennis mobile over their crib. The reward is when a grateful daughter like Clijsters goes on national television and says thank you.