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US Open Tennis: Beating Baghdatis, Andre Agassi Just Won't Go Home

by Christopher McIntosh
09/01/2006

The lead up to the Agassi-Baghdatis match was like the run-up to a heavyweight fight. Back when heavyweight fights actually meant something.

The story's played out hundreds of times before. An aging legend takes on a younger, talented, more athletic man.

If he loses, that's it. No MJ press releases declaring "I'm back." No endless Sugar Ray Leonard "comebacks." No unretiring. The minute he loses, he's done. Even if he wanted to, his back won't let him. Lose this match and you walk into the tunnel a tennis player and come out the other side something else entirely.

We've already seen this once this Summer, during the World Cup. Aging bald legend with dark eyebrows and shaved head chooses to end his career in their most important tournament.

Conventional wisdom is that he's washed up. Lost it. Can't get it back. It's just one last chance for him to come out and get the curtain call that he's more than earned.

So show up, lose early, show some class, and enjoy the fans showering you with praise as you walk off and let the younger, more athletic players fight it out.

Why don't you ask the French how that one ended up.

For Agassi, as it was for Zidane, it's been put off for another round.

And just like the World Cup, it doesn't look like he's leaving anytime soon.

Before last night, this was to be the round he was sent packing. After the last match he was hurting so bad he couldn't stand up. His back is shot - ironically enough, for the former rock star it's partially a result of being too much of a family man.

He's been lifting his kids too much.

After his first retirement deferral in the first round, he was in so much pain that he took cortisone shots in his back. That ain't no vaccination.

It's more like a spinal tap. These needles aren't small and they aren't entering a place in your body that's used to direct contact.

Ironically enough, he was facing almost a mirror image of his younger self, minus the attitude. Exuberant, long hair, flashy headband, and killer groundstrokes, Baghdatis never left the baseline except for the changeovers. He played the power game that's taken over the men's game. Heavy groundstrokes that find impossible angles and hit lines with regularity.

He typically was a crowd favorite.

Sound familiar?

To drive it even further home, Baghdatis was wearing exactly the same shirt as Agassi (they are both sponsored by Adidas). Agassi, the man who once vehemently resisted the whites of Wimbeldon, was sporting a shirt with grey trim.

It was white.

Baghdatis, not Agassi, was wearing the orange version with white trim.

As one writer put it, the concession speeches were ready, the thank you's planned out, the montages of Agassi's career cued up, and the announcers were readying their post-match thoughts and questions for the moment no one was really ready for.

Agassi spoiled it.

And not a single person in the stadium was upset.

Agassi again pulled out the groundstrokes he's ridden to victory for years and went shot for shot with the young, eighth ranked player in the world.

If the Pavel match was an impressive display, this was striking. He knew exactly what shots he could get to and couldn't. If it was out of reach, he saved his energy and didn't bother.

Agassi, not Baghdatis, dictated play. He was hitting the ball so cleanly he looked like the Agassi of old. Baghdatis looked scared. The crowd, the moment, everything seemed to be rattling him. Still, he was only broken once in the first two sets.

That's all it took.

Agassi - two sets to love.

Agassi finally seemed to have Baghdatis' attention. Most importantly, Baghdatis realized his strategy of letting the older man beat himself wasn't going to work.

Andre was doing that. And he was up two sets to love. Baghdatis wins the third, but then went down 4-0 in the fourth. The announcers were already talking about Agassi's coronation and next round opponent.

Baghdatis, lest we forget, is the eighth ranked player in the world and he didn't get there by accident.

He came back.

Then he did it again.

Fifth set. Late night at the US Open, clock about to strike midnight - for tired fans and for Agassi's career.

37 year old man with an injured back. The eighth seeded player in the world, nearly 17 years his junior, and not old enough to remember a time when Agassi wasn't a professional tennis player was suddenly back in it and riding the momentum of that 4-0 comeback.

Who ya got?

Yeah, me too.

Agassi fights it to 5-5 and then around the tenth/eleventh game of the fifth set something seemingly unbelievable happens.

Baghdatis',not Agassi's, body begins to fail him.

Cramps up so bad he can't stand up straight between points.

So he does the only thing he can do.

He loads up the cannon and fires away. The tables have turned, he, not Agassi, knows he has to end points quick.

It's his only shot.

Shockingly, it worked. Like a boxer losing on points late in the fight he could only throw knockout punches. It was his only chance and for a little while, it looked like he was going to pull it off. The young version was going to beat the old version at his own game.

Swing for the fences on every shot. Aim at the lines and swing as hard as you can.

Agassi momentarily looked rattled.

But the new Agassi did what the old would never have done.

He backed off.

He didn't fight back. He fought his instincts and did what his experience and discipline dictated.

He let Baghdatis beat himself.

7-5. Agassi wins.

According to one reporter, after the adrenaline and the crowd and the cortisone disappeared, he was again having trouble walking.

It got so bad, that while waiting for his courtesy car, he had to lie down.

On the pavement.

Agassi wanted this match. The crowd wanted it, we wanted it, Steffi wanted it, and somewhere deep down, Baghdatis himself wanted this.

He gave it to us.

And he's still not done.