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Tuesday, September 05, 2006
Pages: A’s gone! Tennis lost its ace
By John Pages
Matchpoint
I am not an Andre Agassi fan.
Pete Sampras was my idol. Every time the two Americans met, I wished, hoped—and even prayed!—that the flashy, glitzy player from Las Vegas would lose. Sure, I adored Andre’s two-fisted backhand, clapped at that “stronger-than-the-serve” return-of-serve (where he stands inside the baseline to wallop back a 130-mph serve) and envied his collection of ladies (Brooke Shields, Barbara Streisand, Steffi Graf and hundreds in between).
But again, owing to my lifetime membership to the “Pete Sampras Fans Club,” I never liked Andre Agassi.
Flashback to the late 1980s when Andre sported long blonde hair, wore neon-colored cycling shorts underneath those denim pants, and proclaimed that “Image Is Everything,” (in stark contrast to the stoic personality of Sampras), I never rooted for Mr. A.
“Boo to Andre!” I’d shout.
This, of course, was then. This was the 1980s, the 1990s. This was before Agassi fell to a humiliating world No. 141 ranking, before he humbled himself and trained by going up stadium bleachers during Christmas day, before he transformed into a super-AA battery and turned into one the fittest 35-plus-year-old athletes in the world.
Boo to Andre?
Of course not!
I have to admit: I’m not a person quick to cry. But had I watched his farewell early yesterday morning (2 a.m. RP time)—the five-minute-long standing ovation from the crowd, including his opponent Benjamin Becker, the tears he wiped off his cheeks, the emotional speech he gave that had thousands pulling out handkerchiefs from their pockets—I, too, would have shed a tear.
Against Becker, Agassi was in pain. He was hurting. I watched the first two sets and it was obvious he wasn’t the Andre of the first and second rounds.
He winced in pain, his sprints weren’t speedy, his back was so painful he shouldn’t have played—but like the fighter Andre we’ve always known—he played on.
The day before, his dad Mike suggested that he retire after the Marcos Baghdatis match. “Leave the game with millions remembering you from that match, Andre,” I can imagine him telling his son. But dad (an Olympic boxer) forgot that his son was also a fighter—not on the boxing ring but on a box called the tennis court.
Back to Pete Sampras, didn’t we all want Andre to leave as Pete did? To refresh your memory, back in 2002, Sampras had not won a single event in a long time. He was in a slump, stood on a quick-sand and was falling down fast. I remember GQ magazine wrote a scathing article on Pete, saying he was out after his recent marriage and that he should just do the final R: retire.
Pete won the ‘02 US Open.
Andre lost the ‘06 US Open.
But you know what, Andre did something Pete never did—apart from marrying the greatest-ever female player. Andre was able to give us, his fans, the chance to bid him goodbye. With Sampras, no one knew—not even Pete himself—that that US Open would be his farewell party. So we never said goodbye. Not with Andre. We knew this would be his last and so we watched.
Andre’s farewell speech is one of the most poignant of all sports speeches. He said...
“The scoreboard said I lost, but what it doesn’t say is what I have found over the last 21 years. I have found loyalty. You have pulled for me on the court and life. I have found inspiration and you have will me to win. Over the last 21 years I have found you and I will take you with me for the rest of my life.”
Andre, you see, is an excellent speaker. The words that leave his mouth come not from the brain but from beneath that shirt.
Two years ago, he introduced his wife Steffi during her induction to the 2004 International Hall of Fame. That speech moved me to tears. (It’s too long for me to print it here but if you send me an e-mail, I’ll send you a copy of the transcript.)
So here we are, midway through the US Open, and the lone star that shone brightest is gone. Who cares what happens next?
Federer versus Nadal? We’ll watch, sure, but there’s nothing like the A-show. This week was all about one man and this year, 2006, will be remembered for one moment: “The Andre Agassi US Open.”
Boo to Andre?
Bow to Andre.
(john@brightacademy.edu.ph)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (September 5, 2006 issue)
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