Yet he returned to become world number one. "Why do you think fans prefer Agassi to Sampras?" asked Mats Wilander, a great of the 1980s. "Agassi has known it all, the victories, the decline, the renaissance and victory again. His path through tennis is symbolic of life.
"Agassi inhabited each of the three main human personality types in turn: teenage fantacist, slacker and finally striver.
The great returner who triumphed in game of life
By Simon Kuper
Published: August 26 2006 03:00 | Last updated: August 26 2006 03:00
It was one of those sporting careers that punctuated a life. Whatever you were doing these past 20 years, Andre Agassi was either around, or spectacularly not around, playing hooky from his vocation of tennis. But at 36 the boy from Las Vegas is kissing the game goodbye.
The US Open, which begins on Monday, will be his last tournament. I asked a few good judges - Martina Navratilova, his coach Darren Cahill and the chess champion Garry Kasparov - for their verdicts. But first a former opponent, Richard Krajicek: "It's as if he sees the ball bigger than the rest of us, because he returnsso quickly that as the opponent you are often on the wrong foot."
The bigger they made new players, the faster Agassi sent back their serves. When Andy Roddick served at 149mph, a new world record, Agassi returned it. He inaugurated a new kind of tennis. The serve-and-volley players were gradually replacedby followers of Agassi - including Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal - who hit winners from the baseline.
Rallying with Agassi was generally fatal. The instant an opponent dropped a ball a yard short, Agassi didn't give him another chance, sending the ball to the corners, patiently playing out the point like a great chess player unleashing his algorithms on a tiny positional advantage. "I think he understands the game better than anyone," Cahill told me.
Agassi's problem wasthat unlike his rival Pete Sampras, he always knew there was a life outside tennis. Agassi burned out on the game. Women posted him naked photographs of themselves with their phone numbers inscribed, which must have been distracting. In 1997 he put on 22lbs. His epitaph was already written: a waste of talent.
Yet he returned to become world number one. "Why do you think fans prefer Agassi to Sampras?" asked Mats Wilander, a great of the 1980s. "Agassi has known it all, the victories, the decline, the renaissance and victory again. His path through tennis is symbolic of life."
Agassi inhabited each of the three main human personality types in turn: teenage fantacist, slacker and finally striver. I asked Cahill what such a loverof life felt about training. "Everyone has their highs or lows in training," admitted Cahill. "He wants to improve himself. He never wastes a second of his training time, or his playing time."
What could a coach teach him? "Good question. There's not much you can change. That would be a major mistake. Make sure he makes the most of the punishing groundstrokes."
Was there anything that Agassi never learned? "The one thing I've tried to help him with which has been more difficult than I anticipated was to make him more comfortable around the net."
Navratilova is herself retiring from doubles next month, aged 49. I askedher to explain Agassi's longevity in singles.
"Amazing, amazing," she said. But how did he do it? "He stays inside the baseline, he takes the ball early, so he doesn't have to go as far to hit it. So he's very efficient in how he plays. And his strokes are efficient as well, meaning there's not much flailing around. It's pretty compact: short swing and pop. None of this big-ass backswing."
Where does Agassi stand in tennis history? "For me Rod Laver is the greatest of all time," said Cahill. "I would just about take Andre's career over anybody else: to have won the four slams, to be number one, to be the oldest number one. For me it's Rod Laver, and then Andre with a bunch of other players just behind him."
But did Agassi care about history? "He never takes the time to sit back and look around," said Cahill. "He's a humble guy. His main concern is making sure he can give back to the underprivileged children of Las Vegas."
Amid the elegies it's refreshing to hear someone diminish Agassi's achievement. Kasparov dominated chess for almost 20 years. In 2003 I asked him whether he felt kinship with ageing greats in other sports, such as Agassi or football's Paolo Maldini. "Yeah, they try," Kasparov conceded, "but my record has no comparison, because I'm number one for 18 years, and also in chess you have to come up with new concept.
"Every club player who has enough time to work with his computer could come up with the final solution of a position."
However, he added: "In tennis, Agassi is still Agassi, and you can't beat him even if you know all the movements."
When I asked Cahill how we would remember Agassi, he barely mentioned tennis. He said: "He's the most generous giver to charities of any athlete in any sport. He should be damn proud of where he is today."
Indeed: over five sets, and after saving several match points, Agassi won his match against himself.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2006
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