The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Salutations to a champion and idol

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Sep 05, 2006

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Sport - Tennis

Salutations to a champion and idol

NEW YORK: How stars — past and present — reacted to Andre Agassi's retirement after his loss on Sunday.

Mats Wilander (seven-time Grand Slam winner): Agassi has known it all, the victories, the decline, the renaissance and victory again. His path through tennis is symbolic of life.

Martina Navratilova: I just wanted to be part of the moment.

Andy Roddick: Every person in the draw probably idolised Andre at some point. He's just revolutionised the sport. He's irreplaceable.

Brad Gilbert (Agassi's former coach): The gist of his 40-second farewell speech is to respect the game. Everybody just stood clapping and was choked up. He made a lot of us think about our role in the sport.

Andy Murray: I'm not going to lie, but I think 50 per cent, 60 per cent of the people in there were probably in tears and were holding it back. I know I was.

Rafael Nadal: I got pretty emotional. I started to cry a bit. These are always emotional moments. They are beautiful to keep in your mind, and to be able to see them here in person, as I did, it's a fortunate thing.

James Blake: We all owe a little debt of gratitude for what he's done because he's transcended the sport to become an international superstar, more so than any other tennis player over the last 20 years.

Lindsay Davenport: In the last 20 years, he's been the most important person we've had in our sport. He's beloved. Not many players become what he has become. You know that he is going to be equally famous and equally successful in his post career.

Lleyton Hewitt: He'll go down as one of the guys who changed our sport in a lot of ways, not only the way he played the game, but also the way that he conducted himself on and off the court. There's not too many more recognisable people in tennis. The sport probably owes a lot to him.

Serena Williams: He's had just such a positive influence I think on players' attitudes. He also had a great style. I think the game is going to miss him more than probably they miss anyone. — Agencies

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