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Tuesday, January 20, 2004
Pages: On top, shining
By John Pages
Match Point
NEW York City was hot. Scorching, burning hot. But one player sizzled even hotter that 1999 US Open – the year my dad Bunny and I watched our first-ever grand slam tennis sortie.
I’ll never forget it. Right before our awestruck eyes, just a few arms length distance, stood the shining white top. He’d tear through the crowd, settle in a side court, then warm-up shirtless for the next half hour. Relaxed moon balls first to loosen those cold muscles, he’d then accelerate, step up the pace, boom-boom-boom, and flood the lime green hard-court with sweat.
No one, I tell you, pulverizes that ball like Andre Agassi. No one defies physics more, standing on the baseline while others are 20 feet back. No one treats opponents meaner. As if he were a drooling Doberman, left, right, left, right, he’d run.
No one has more charisma. And pizzazz. Hundreds of thousands of spectators drown the USTA courts each August. But when Andre warms up, like black ants everybody disappears from the stadium courts to swarm the man with the shining top. To think he’s just practicing!
And so Andre won the 1999 US Open.
And so Andre will win the 2004 Australian Open. That’s my bold prediction, never mind if he’s 33 summers old. Here’s why.
ANDRE THE GIANT IS HUNGRY. Deep inside, he knows only one, two years max are left in the gas tank. He knows Pete, Michael, and Jim are home, lying on a soft couch. He knows – who knows? – this might well be his last tournament, match, point.
He’s fit. No, make that the fittest. Legend says Andre climbs football stadium stairs up and down for hours on end – on Christmas day! True story. You see, while the ATP Tour men gorge, drink, and party during the holidays – they can never do that the rest of the year, right? – Andre works, works, works. And it works. He’s won three of the last four trips Down Under.
Andre has ridden one helluva roller coaster life. His father, Mike, an Iranian boxer who won an Olympic bronze, groomed Andre for greatness since birth. His ploy? Hang a tennis ball atop Andre’s crib, sway it back and forth for Andre’s eyes to follow, then cajole him to swing. And swing hard. How the months-old baby loved it!
As Andre grew older, dad pushed even harder. He practiced him with Bjorn Borg and Jimmy Connors before the age of 12, asked Nick Bollettieri to turn mentor, and encouraged his becoming pro when he turned sweet 16.
Love life? Ahhh, Barbara Streisand would flinch. But flinging aside all flings, Andre dropped the “Will you marry me…” line to Brooke Shields in 1997, dropped his ranking from No.2 to 141 not long thereafter, then dropped each other after just 24 months.
That’s when Paris charmed the Las Vegan. French Open ’99. Not just one but two shining trophies: the Roland Garros cup and Steffi Graf.
The two married in 2001 and have two children: two-year-old son Jaden Gil, and daughter Jaz, born last October. Lucky children. Only two players (male and female) in history have won all four majors and the Olympic gold medal – their dad and mom.
MONEY. Mmmm, the smell of green bucks. Just read last week that Tiger Woods surpassed $40 million in prize money. Compared with what Jack Nicklaus ($5.7 million) and Arnold Palmer ($1.86 million) pocketed their entire careers, that’s incomprehensible. Andre has his mountain full of shining gold, too, earning $28 million. But the thing that separates Andre from the rest: he gives back. The Andre Agassi Charitable Foundation has raised more than $23 million to build schools, run sports programs, and provide assistance for children who were either abused or abandoned.
So this Australian Open, my vote goes to Andre. Not only because he’s the oldest, thus the sentimental favorite. Not only because he hits that darn ball hardest. Not only because he’s fittest, hungriest, sexiest.
I vote for Andre in 2004 because he’s a shining example. Of hard work. Of pulling yourself up no matter what. Of turning the tide and using all of one’s might and muscles to win. And especially, of using that one muscle – the heart – to give back.
(john@playhouse.edu.ph)
(January 20, 2004 issue)
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