Christien Louviere

I have followed Andre Agassi since I was about 12.  The young brash kid who brought to mind images of McEnroe.  He was sponsored by Nike and I had his truly ugly shoes (he is now Adidas).  He was cocky and had every right to be.  I have really enjoyed seeing him transformation from brash young man to wise classy family man he is today.  Agassi is a class figure and I’m proud to have been a fan of his all of these years.

It was exhilarating to watch Andre Agassi’s final run at the U.S. Open this past week.  The 36 year-old with a painful back complication did an unbelievable job of pushing himself to the limits.  Watching him over his 3 matches, I could tell that he was putting everything he had into it and he had the entire crowd at Arthur Ashe stadium in his corner.  I actually watched him in the tiebreaker to beat Pavel from a dive bar in Little Italy (NYC).  Even the bar was cheering for him to finish on each point.   The second match over Baghdatis was, personally, one of the best matches I’ve ever seen.  After the second set, I couldn’t move my eyes from the TV.

Today, the final day of his U.S. Open career, was almost painful for me to watch.  He played Benjamin Becker, a largely unknown player from Baylor via Germany.  I must say I was thoroughly impressed with him.  I turned on the match during the first set and immediately I could see that Agassi was going to have a tough time.  One of his serves was hit 142 mph and was nailing 130 mph consistently.  The only hope Agassi had was early on because Becker had several forehand unforced errors.  Becker may have been a bit in awe of his place in time.  They went through 8 deuces in Set 2 that Agassi lost.  He couldn’t bend over to get the low shots and the serves were just overpowering.  I could tell his back was gone during his service…some barely hit 95 mph (he’s normally in the 120’s).  Every now and then he had a flash of brilliance returning a strong serve, but Becker would outlast him.

Knowing his fate, I left after the second set.  I came back to see that he had just been defeated.  It was closer than I thought it would be.  I’m glad I made it back for the end.  It was great to see the emotion pour out of him from the sidelines.  His opponent took centre court and bowed gracefully.  I love seeing class on both sides of the court.  Becker’s future is promising but he knew Agassi was the man of the hour.  Agassi took the court and the microphone for the denouement.  He simply thanked everyone (the fans) for what they had taught and given him.  Standing in my room, I could feel chills and the drops of sweat tracking down over the erect hairs on my body as he spoke.   A great ending.