Andre Agassi’s tennis life came full circle at the 2006 US Open. The tennis hater turned bad boy turned superstar turned American icon was playing the final tournament of his illustrious career. Much like most of his time on the tennis court, the 36-year-old did not go down without swinging.
At No. 39 in the rankings, it was not going to be an easy tournament for the eight-time Grand Slam champion, but that did not matter much. First, he fought past Romanian Andrei Pavel in four tight sets. He did not cover the court like he once did or blast ground strokes that today keep him in the argument of who the best aggressive baseliner in history is. But he won, and that was all that mattered. Andre Agassi was not in New York to bow out quietly.
“I've seen myself play some shockers.” Agassi said after the match. “You know, I've surprised myself a thousand times for better and for worse. Stick around to see if I can do that. I mean, you know, miracles can happen, for sure.”
Perhaps his next match against No. 8 seed Marcos Baghdatis was a miracle in itself. The Cypriot was younger (by 15 years), fitter and arguably in far better form. But the magic man hoped to have one more production in him – he even took a cortisone injection after his opener so that he would have every opportunity he could to perform to the best of his abilities in his second home – Arthur Ashe Stadium – again.
“ I just wanted to fight, you know?” Baghdatis said after the match. “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. That's all. That's what I did.”
Agassi reduced one of the best players in the world, as well as himself, to intense cramping, but lived to fight another day with a 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 5-7, 7-5 win.
“In most cases I prefer to live without the drama,” Agassi said after the match, smiling. “But just wouldn't seem right here.”
Finally, after the all-time great’s last act of greatness, he bowed out in the third round to Benjamin Becker – who was in the main draw this year, a decade later – in four sets.
No. 9 seed and eventual finalist Andy Roddick said that Agassi was a “big mentor” for him, and recalls the scene after Agassi’s final match well.
“I remember him coming in after the match and it being very emotional and the locker room kind of all standing up and crowding around him and giving him an applause and an ovation,” Roddick said. “I certainly had a close view of the entire thing and I think the biggest thing was everyone in that locker room got the gravity of what was happening. I think the ultimate respect is from the guys inside the locker room and your peers and them all laying back and realizing a special moment. That was cool to me.“
Roddick did have somewhat of a dilemma, though – he did not want his mentor to take his last curtain call quite yet, but he did not want to play Agassi, either. The winner between Agassi and the young German, Becker, would advance to the fourth round for a likely match against the 2003 US Open champion.
“If we had both won our third-round matches, we would have played fourth round, which is a match I didn’t want to be a part of for a lot of reasons,” Roddick said. “He was a big mentor for me and kind of walking that line between, ‘OK, I’m in good form and I can make a good run here’ and kind of finishing off one of your idols, an icon in the game. I didn’t want that emotional tug of war, but at the same time I didn’t want Andre to lose to Becker.”
But he did. In the third round of his final tournament, Agassi did not touch the ball during his final professional point – a Becker ace to close out the 7-5, 6-7, 6-4, 7-5 victory.
“Most people if they hear my name they probably know me because of that match,” Becker said. “It was all over New York. Obviously a big stakes, so obviously a lot of people point it out and I don’t blame them. I would have done the same if someone else would have done it.”
Becker did not want to be the one to end Agassi’s career, the young player forcing the king out of his kingdom. But he was trying to build up his ranking and carve out a career.
“The first thought is always, ‘Man, that was a long time ago’,” Becker said. “Second thought is always, yeah, it was a great experience for me. I still didn’t want to be the villain, to be the last man. But it was me at the time. So yeah, I mean obviously after I’m done I will maybe look back at it with a little more pleasure than I am now.”
There is one thing that the entire tennis world can take pleasure in today – Andre Agassi’s legacy, even a decade after his final match, is still the same.
