As you may have heard Andre Agassi was finally defeated today in the 3rd round of the US Open tennis tournament in a battle against Benjamin Becker. This is supposed to be Agassi's last professional tournament before he retires. Even though I don't believe he's won many major tournaments lately I was pulling for him to make it to the finals similar to last great stands by the likes of Jimmy Conners.
The defeat came at the end of the 4th set where Becker oddly quickly broke Agassi's serve at games 5-5, after Agassi had quickly and overwhelmingly won his previous 3 service games with mostly aces. Even though Agassi had served really well this game as well, somehow Becker just stepped in and hit some return winners. This made it 5-6 Becker, and very difficult since Becker had been serving many untouchable aces at over 132mph. After Agassi's service break it was quickly over game, set, match at 5-7.
For most of the match it was obvious that Agassi had been struggling due to his disk injury to his back which he as been plagued with for a long time. This was increasingly in contrast to Agassi's round 1 & 2 five set victories where he athletically overpowered very good players much younger than himself. But 5 set victories take their toll in many ways. I really believe he would have easily won this match against Becker had he not been hobbled and unable to move well. Indeed, at times he appeared to be in a bit of pain.
I have to give Agassi a lot of credit for his effort. Many lesser people would have given up long ago. His career of well over 20 years spans the careers of many other tennis greats such as Boris Becker, and Pete Sampras. They had come and gone but Agassi was still playing. In both of his 5 set matches that were very close Agassi worked very hard against often slim odds to pull it out and bring it to victory.
But victory was not to be had today in the 3rd round, and it was hard to look on the shocking, non-climactic end of this tournament series and match. The normally happy, friendly Agassi, courteously congratulated Becker and then sat down to realize that this was the end of the long road. At times he appeared to start to cry, obviously overwhelmed by the enormous emotional effort against a great player, and his continual struggle against the pain. Perhaps this was only to realize that this was how his career had ended as well.
In his closing statements on the court Agassi related that even though the scoreboard was showing that he lost, indeed he had won. For all the years had brought him many good things. Kind of a no regrets type statement.
This was sad for me as well, as I felt the weight of time passing for it seems Agassi had always been there the many years I have played tennis almost since High School. It reminded me of how all of us have great works, and efforts, but how eventually, inevitably time wears all of us down. Eventually even the greatest amongst us must succumb to time and eventually lose. At that point it is the memories and legacies which are left.
Agassi was not always such an inspirational character in my opinion. When he started his career he was a flamboyant power player that worked out with weights. Back then my friends and I would often make fun of him, because he would 'hack' so much with all his skill. For a long time this was true, but eventually he did win some great tournaments. He followed the footsteps of many other great players as best he could.
Perhaps you are not really into tennis, but this is true of the example set by many great people. They strive and reach greatness, and teach us all a lesson about ourselves in the process.
For all this I would like to salute Andre Agassi. Andre, as is the case with many other great people we have seen on the field, in many sports, or other endeavors we may not see your particular individual style, grace, and greatness again, but we thank you for the memories and inspiration. I also wish you well in whatever endeavors you find next to challenge you!
Bill
http://www.usopen.org/en_US/news/articl ... 95640.html
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