By CHRISTOPHER CLAREY
Published: September 1, 2006
NEW YORK, Sept. 1 — It was 1:45 in the morning on Friday, and Andre Agassi was hobbling toward the exit of the National Tennis Center after one of the finest performances of a career that is not quite over, after all. But though Agassi had found a way to fight through fatigue and overcome the eighth-seeded Marcos Baghdatis in five routinely thrilling sets, he could not find a way to make it all the way to the gate.
He grabbed at the back of his leg and then slumped to the sidewalk, stretching out on his back with a plastic DVD case under his bald head for a pillow: trying to alleviate the pain.
It was quite a contrast with the way Agassi had looked and played little more than an hour before as he chased down drop shots, lunged for forehands and threw his 36-year-old body into groundstrokes in a successful attempt to postpone retirement once more.
“He certainly didn’t look 36 out there tonight,” said Baghdatis’s coach Guilllaume Peyre.
This 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 5-7, 7-5 victory in the second round of the United States Open belongs on the short list of great matches in Agassi’s career: quite an accomplishment for a man who has been playing memorable matches for 21 years and who seriously debated whether he should play here at all because of his ailing back.
But Agassi decided that he would see his summer plans through to the end, and now, no matter what happens in what remains of his final tournament, he has one more terrific memory to savor in retirement.
“I haven’t played like this in a year, so for it to happen here, I am surprised,” Agassi said. “I couldn’t be more thankful for the timing.”
Thursday night looked like a logical, dignified place for it all to end. Agassi’s opponent was Baghdatis: a young Cypriot who was moved to tears as a boy when he watched Agassi win Wimbledon on television; a 21-year-old who has soared into the top 10 by having much more success in this year’s Grand Slam tournaments than his ailing, aging American opponent.
But many of the exclamation points in Agassi’s career have come with little advance warning: that Wimbledon bolt-from-the-blue in 1992; his French Open victory in 1999 on clay and his stirring run to the final at this same tournament last year.
This victory, even if it came in only the second round, was certainly in the same vein as Agassi cranked back the clock against someone 15 years his junior and ultimately proved to be the fresher, fitter man in a three-hour-and-48-minute marathon that ended well after midnight with the cavernous stadium still very well populated.
“It just seems like it’s getting better and better,” he said of the atmosphere. “My head was ringing I came in the tunnel afterwards, it was so noisy. You know, I’m going to go out there and work hard and certainly try, but you’re not guaranteed these moments or that moment. To feel it out there was something I can keep with me forever.”
With Agassi serving at 4-4, 40-30 in the fifth set, Baghadatis, who had already erased a two-set deficit, stretched wide at the net and hit a forehand volley winner and immediately began cramping. He hopped. He hobbled. He grabbed at his legs and ultimately ended up flat on his back on the hard court in considerable pain.
After he rose to his feet, he was given a code violation for delay of game by chair umpire Carlos Ramos. Baghdatis flashed a grin and spread his arms wide at the absurdity of the situation. Though Ramos was only sticking to the rules and doing so correctly, Baghdatis certainly was not delaying on purpose.
But while he somehow managed to play on, showing considerable grit, he would never manage to take the lead. Agassi, flustered by seeing Baghdatis suddenly so vulnerable, alternated the sublime and the unforced error before finally holding serve after eight deuces to go up 5-4.
Baghdatis received treatment on the changeover, as trainer Per Bastholt rubbed cream into his legs, and even managed to hold serve to 5-all. “I just wanted to fight, you know?” Baghdatis said. “Playing Andre in the center court of Arthur Ashe the last thing, I want to just die on the court. I will do anything to win.”
But it would be Agassi who would win the final two games, earning a place in the third round when Baghdatis hit the last of so many backhands long.
“Whatever you say is just not enough,” Baghdatis said. “He gave so much to this sport, and I want to congratulate him for his career and everything.”
If Agassi can manage to recover from this match, he will be the favorite in the third round, where he will face Benjamin Becker, a German who is no relation to Boris Becker and is ranked 112th in the world. It will be scheduled for Saturday afternoon in New York, and from the look of the weather forecast, which is predicting rain for most of Saturday, he may get an extra day of rest.
After his first-round victory over Andrei Pavel on Monday, Agassi said he was unable to stand up on his own power. The solution was another cortisone injection to deaden the pain in his back: a solution he has relied on often in the last three years because of a disc problem. His most recent injection came in July after Wimbledon. Until now, according to his trainer Gil Reyes, he had never resorted to an injection during a tournament.
“It is worth it, and I’m not wondering,” Agassi said. “This is it.”
Agassi underwent the 20-minute procedure on Tuesday, practiced lightly on Wednesday and then returned to Ashe Stadium with a visible bounce in his step on Thursday night, chatting cheerfully with his former rival Jim Courier before the match in a television interview conducted in the tunnel leading to the court as the crowd roared.
Once on the court, he looked considerably quicker than against Pavel, when his movement had often appeared suspect. This match was played, in large part, on the backhand diagonal and while Baghdatis played well in patches early, Agassi was the slightly steadier, slightly more lucid combatant. At one stage, it appeared he might even win in straight sets, but at 3-3 in the third, he was unable to convert on either of his two break points as Baghdatis served one of his 23 aces on the first and saved the second with a backhand down the line that Agassi could not quite handle.
Baghdatis then broke Agassi’s serve for the first time in the next game as Agassi missed a backhand of his own. Baghdatis, an emotive sort who had not had much to celebrate until now, shrieked with delight and release and pounded his big chest with a clenched fist and locked wide eyes with Peyre in the stands.
He would then serve out the set, only to see Agassi jump out to a 4-0 lead in the fourth and get the crowd sensing something special once more. But Baghdatis is a resilient man, one who generally enjoys big-match, big-stage pressure as he proved by reaching the Australian Open final this year by beating three top 10 players along the way and giving the merry band of Greeks and Greek Cypriots in Melbourne Park plenty of opportunity to dance in the stands after midnight.
But there would be no late-night party this time. He was not at home away from home, after all. Though there were a Cypriot flag or two waving high, high in the fifth tier of seats, there were a great deal more banners and voices paying tribute to Agassi. Early in the first set, a male fan cried out, “Andre, This is your house, and it’s all of us against him!”
It felt that way sometimes. “I mean when you miss a first serve and they just camp, I mean that’s not so good,” Baghdatis said. “But that’s life. That’s the way it is. It happens to everybody. I mean Agassi deserves what he has today and all this crowd with him.”
Still, Baghdatis somehow managed to claw his way back to 4-4 before Agassi finally held serve again. But the American could not hold the next time as Baghdatis cracked consecutive forehand winners to take a 6-5 lead.
It was very soon two sets all and Agassi was not looking nearly so fresh. Down 0-1 after dropping his serve in the opening game of the fifth, he sat in his chair picking at his strings wearing a somber look – gray stubble visible on his not-so-freshly shaved head – while Baghdatis took a three-minute medical time out to have his left thigh treated.
But this match was far, far from over, and Agassi would break Baghdatis back in the very next game and then stay strong enough to the finish. It was only after it ended that he looked like the more vulnerable man as he lay there on his back in the darkness.
But Agassi eventually picked himself up – slowly – off the sidewalk and limped out the exit to a waiting sport utility vehicle with his brother Phil, coach Darren Cahill and several security guards hovering nervously.
The vehicle eventually pulled away with Agassi inside.
Moments later, Baghdatis appeared, his eyes still red from crying, and walked with no problem along the same stretch of pavement. Told what had just happened, he shook his head and muttered a joke amidst the disappointment.
“Agassi,” he said, “must be out of shape.”
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