The Sports Truth

He did it again. It took five sets, 3 hours 48 minutes, and a ton of physical and mental anguish, but Andre Agassi got it done. In a match he had wrapped up in the third and fourth sets, then appeared to have let slip away in the fifth, Agassi prevailed through sheer will.

He won because he would not let Marcus Baghdatis beat him. Because his body was the less weakened of the two, and because the New York crowd would not allow this legend to go quietly into the morning. Agassi had to prevail in this match somehow. He just had to.

He did, prolonging his career at least two more days, and one more match. The score of Agassi’s epic win over eighth-seeded Marcos Baghdatis in the second round of the U.S. Open last night reads 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 5-7, 7-5, although that doesn’t begin to tell the whole story.

Neither does what follows below, but here’s a quick rundown of the sequence of events transpiring at Arthur Ashe Stadium, August 31-September 1…

• Agassi takes the first set, 6-4, aided by a lengthy point in the eighth game in which Baghdatis took a spill and hurt his left wrist.
• Playing his prototypical game, using clean and efficient groundstrokes and just enough first serves Agassi conserves energy and rolls to another 6-4 set. John McEnroe uses both “tight” and “loose” to negatively describe Baghdatis, who is obviously off his game, either playing tentatively or going for way too much.
• Andre has a break point at 3-3 in the third set, prompting McEnroe and his announcing counterpart, Ted Robinson, to discuss how he was about to finish the Cyprus native off in an hour and a half.
• Baghdatis holds serve, then capitalizes on a rare weak service game from Agassi to break for a 5-3 advantage. He serves out the set handily and is right back in this thing. We learn that a person from Cyprus is called a “Cypriot!” Who knew?
• While he overcame whatever mental bloc afflicted him earlier, Baghdatis can’t stop spraying the ball. Clusters of unforced errors land him in an 0-4 hole to start the fourth set, as Agassi fans prematurely celebrate a second time.

• In an almost instantaneous momentum shift, Agassi starts playing like an exhausted 36-year-old with a bulging disc in his back (one that required a cortisone shot the previous day), while Marcos became the younger, faster, more talented upstart ranked eighth in the world. He roars back (literally and otherwise) to take the fourth set, 7-5.
• Baghdatis opens the deciding set with an easy break of Agassi’s serve, leaving the American in a daze. But then the 21-year-old collapses during the changeover with aching, cramping thighs. Sensing that he’s not done yet, and benefiting greatly from a six-minute delay as a trainer tends to his opponent, Andre regroups and breaks right back.
• Since my father is 60 and I can’t volley to save my life, even other shot is a drop shot when we play. With Agassi unable to bend over and Baghdatis hobbling with cramps, that’s what this match becomes. They drop shot each other to death and find themselves at 4-4.
• At 30-30 in the ninth game, Baghdatis collapses again with cramps. Since tournament rules prohibit him from receiving treatment except during the changeovers, he must continue play or be DQ’d. Writing in pain and limping, he somehow manages to garner several break points before Andre holds for a 5-4 lead. That game lasted 22 points.
• After the two exchange holds, Baghdatis serves to send the match to an epic and appropriate fifth-set tie-break. But, after going up 40-15, he double faults twice and commits two backhand errors to blow it. Game, set, match. Ecstasy in the stands, exhaustion on the blue Ashe Stadium court.

Though broken in every sense, Baghdatis received a standing ovation from the crowd, and was gracious in defeat.

“I just wanted to fight,” he said. “I’m playing Andre on center court of Arthur Ashe. I’ll do anything to win. That’s all. That’s what I did.”

Himself weary, Agassi seemed in awe. Of himself, but more so the moment.

“My whole career I’ve been striving to achieve things I never believed I could do. I’m here now just taking it all in,” he said. “That feels really special to me, and really worth it.”

Next up for the two-time Open champ? B. Becker of Germany. Benjamin, that is. No relation. A victory over the 112th-ranked competitor Saturday and Agassi will likely meet up with compatriot Andy Roddick. Winning that one would be an extremely tall order — but after seeing this, is anyone ready to write the old man off?

Posted in Andre Agassi, Tennis