For Andre Agassi, the mind and heart were willing but the body gave up at this year’s US Open, ending an amazing career spanning two decades. Interestingly he lost in 4 sets to B. Becker(Benjamin not Boris) yet another young player who says Agassi was his role model while growing up. This year has been tough for Andre physically and maybe in hindsight it would have been better for him to retire last year at the US Open when he  had a great run to the finals before losing to Federer in straight sets. In this match it was sad to see Andre 3-4 meters behind the baseline playing a defensive game on a surface where he’s dominated in the past attacking the ball on the rise, right on the baseline. I guess his back pains were not allowing him to move quick enough for such a type of game. But Andre at 36 still had the steely will of old to push Becker to four sets while hobbling around the baseline. At the end of the match an emotional Andre was in tears after thanking the crowd for supporting him all these years. 

Looking back on the last 2 decades, though I really enjoyed his matches with Pete Sampras, Andre was never among the players I really rooted for. Maybe coz so much of his game was based on pure natural ability that I could never relate to him much on a tennis court. Just a commentry on my (lack of!)abilities not his game as such. But I do still remember as a very young kid trying(not so sucessfully) to open up on the forehand to hit the ball on the rise like him. His sucess also made people aware of the importance of having a good return of service. With Andre Agassi I also associate witnessing some of the most heroic moments in sport as seen in his second coming post semi-retirement in the late 1990’s. The victory at Roland Garros in 1999 and subsequently his rise back to the top 10 in rankings must rank as among the most incredible comebacks in tennis. Only Jeniffer Capriati’s emotional comeback post a troubled teenage period compares(favourably?) to that. In any case with 8 grand slams and more importantly a career slam(win in all 4) his place among the all-time greats is assured.