The Hindu : Sport : Agassi proves age is a mere number

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jan 24, 2005

Sport

Sport

Agassi proves age is a mere number

By Nirmal Shekar

MELBOURNE, JAN. 23. As he trudged back, pigeon toed, to his chair after the first set — which was sealed by his young Swedish opponent with a 217mph second serve ace that might have attracted a stiff penalty under the noise pollution act from the local council — Andre Agassi looked like an ageing matador who's been in one fight too many, who's been gored and nicked by one primed fighting bull too many.

And, as the ageing icon struck a pensive Rodinesque pose in his chair during the change-over in the bull ring of a stadium in the Centenary Australian Open on Sunday, stroking his bald pate idiosyncratically now and again, many a legend-dismantling last chapter played out in the mind unsolicited — great men forever seeking to ward off the winter to stay aglow in autumnal golden glory, only to find themselves framed in tragic twilight.

The American eighth seed was playing Joachim Johansson, a 22-year old 6ft 6in Swede with a blood curdler of a serve and a bazooka-like forehand, both of which might soon attract George Bush's attention as Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD), especially considering that Agassi is American.

But, then, with Bush preoccupied with Iraq, where as many WMDs were found as there are polar bears roaming in the Silent Valley, Agassi's only hope seemed to be to say a quiet prayer and stick his neck under the guillotine.

"It's not fun. It's very uncomfortable. You just have to admire it while you are out there because there's not a whole lot you can do when destiny is in somebody else's hands that extremely," Agassi would say later.

By then, of course, the WMDs had been quietly, efficiently disposed of and Johansson did not have so much as a blunt pen-knife left as the ageing matador with dazzling theatrics turned a tennis match into a classic corrida with all its mystique and flavour before finally bringing off a memorable kill for a 6-7(4), 7-6(5), 7-6(3), 6-4 fourth round victory in two hours and 38 minutes.

Phenomenal power

"It (the serve) is a phenomenal weapon he has," said Agassi on an afternoon when the best returner in the game saw 51 aces fly past him. "That and his forehand. The power is phenomenal... you know, I was worried about embarrassment."

Remarkably, in the end, it was the younger man who might have been embarrassed. For, in the face of adversity, Agassi withdrew deep into himself like a Zen master, gathered his wits and energies and then went after Johansson with the sort of determination that might elude players in their career prime.

It was a masterly exhibition in bull-taming by Agassi in a contest of smouldering intensity and the great Ernest Hemingway would have surely changed his opinion about sports if he had witnessed anything like this in his lifetime.

"There are only three sports: bullfighting, motor racing and mountaineering; all the rest are merely games," wrote the master storyteller in his bullfighting classic Death in the Afternoon.

Were he alive and watching this memorable contest, Hemingway, a lover of macho sports, might have changed his opinion and found a lot to savour and celebrate today as Agassi, three months shy of his 35th birthday — a nonagenarian in tennis terms — displayed all the glorious virtues of a valorous bullfighter.

"You are lunging, you are jumping. All I can do is try not to be overwhelmed out there," said Agassi, who will play defending champion and top seed Roger Federer in the quarterfinals on Tuesday night.

Big weapons

There is an air of calculated violence about Johansson on a tennis court. With a gunslinger's stoop and a shambling walk, the Swede oozes menace. A moving skyscraper of a player, he has the instincts of a born gambler and goes for broke on every single point.

This, of course, worked to Agassi's advantage. "He was living and dying by his shot selection. Along with his winners came a lot of errors," said the American who won his first ATP Tour title (1987) when Johansson was five years old.

As much as Agassi's cunning, the 66 unforced errors that Johansson made contributed to his exit. With a little more patience and smarter shot selection, the Swede could have made the best possible use of the great weapons he possesses.

For his part, Agassi raised his service game a few notches — he had 16 aces — and showed commendable recuperative skills after having walked into a tornado. The turning point came in the second set tiebreak where a backhand pass opened the door for the oldest player still left in the draw.

In the next set, Agassi took control of the tiebreak with a forehand winner and was on cruise mode after breaking serve to 3-2 in the fourth set.

"You are not climbing the whole mountain at once," said Agassi. "You are taking a step at a time. I mean, it's the next point (snapping fingers). The most important point is the next one."

That's life's ultimate wisdom and the ones who learn it quickly are so much better off. And the grand Agassi journey, which began in the Jurassic age in tennis terms, continues as the last of the dinosaurs stays alive in quest of a ninth career Grand Slam — and fifth Australian Open — title.

"Grow old along with me, the best is yet to be. The last for which the first was made..."

Has Andre Agassi read Robert Browning? No matter, play it once more Andre.

Bhupathi and Woodbridge move up

India's Mahesh Bhupathi and Australia's Todd Woodbridge moved into the quarterfinals of the men's doubles championship as they came from behind to beat Albert Costa and Rafael Nadal of Spain 4-6, 7-6(2), 6-4.

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