Sport

Andre Agassi plays his last match at Wimbledon

Nirmal Shekar

A straight-set defeat to Nadal marks the end of an era

London: The super-show has left town for the last time. And we may not see one quite like it for a long, long time in the world's oldest tennis championships.

As the legendary matador — Andre Agassi — blew kisses to his beloved fans on the Centre Court at Wimbledon for the final time, after just about managing to avoid a gory mauling by the Bull of Mallorca — Rafael Nadal — in a third round match of the 120th championships, on Saturday, there were not too many pairs of dry eyes in the old stadium.

An era had ended. The torch had passed. And one of the longest running hits — comparable for longevity to Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera — on the greatest tennis stage in the world gently eased into history on a warm summer afternoon.

Nadal was barely three weeks past his first birthday when Agassi first played in this championship, hair as long as the Spaniard's and a touch peeved by the All England Club's "predominantly white" dress code.

The audacious left-handed French shotmaker, Henri Leconte, allowed the 17-year old from Las Vegas a mere five games.

Nineteen long years — and a half a dozen makeovers — later, against a 20-year old dynamo of energy, a man who explodes on the court with predatory elegance, Agassi made a match of it for one long set before Nadal remorselessly pulled away for a 7-6(2), 6-2, 6-4 victory in two hours and 14 minutes.

Breaking tradition

"I'll never repay you for how you've embraced me here," said Agassi — Wimbledon broke with tradition and allowed BBC's Sue Barker to interview the departing legend on court — to trigger yet another comforting swell of standing ovation. "It's been a lot of incredible years."

In a way, Agassi is lucky. Not only is he a popular champion but also he has planned his good-bye well. For, greater champions than him have left inconspicuously. The greatest of them all — Pete Sampras — played and lost a second round match to a qualifier — George Bastl — on the No.2 court in what turned out to be the great man's last appearance here four years ago.

Then again, you cannot grudge the Las Vegas showman his due. He deserved everything he got today. One of only five men — Fred Perry, Don Budge, Roy Emerson and Rod Laver are the others — to win all the four Grand Slam titles, Agassi ended up playing some of his finest tennis past the age of 28, an age at which most champions begin to wrestle with the retirement question.

Travelling the long and exciting road with Agassi, we were reminded of Robert Browing's famous words: Grow old along with me, the best is yet to be.

And the best of the 1992 champion did come in the second half of his career — and his level of fitness past age 30 pointed to the enormous sacrifices he's had to make on the uphill road in pursuit of excellence.

But, quite apart from the number of titles he's won (60) and the years he has spent in the Top 10 (16), it was Agassi's ability to engage with himself time and again as a human being and as an athlete, and reinvent himself as a better person and a better player, that's been astonishing.

But then, Wimbledon itself has been a long self-illuminating journey for Agassi. "This is the place which taught me to respect the sport," he said.

Nadal's finest on grass

As memorable as Agassi's farewell was, the enormity of the occasion should not turn the spotlight away from Nadal. For, the young Spaniard chose the right moment to play the finest grass court match of his career.

Nadal ambushed the great champion with a vicious array of crisscrossing winners hit with unremitting pace. And he served with great confidence right through the match.

As a contest, the match lasted one set. After staving off a bunch of breakpoints and three setpoints in the 10th game on serve, Agassi moved into a seemingly commanding position in the tiebreak, opening up a 5-2 lead.

But the 36-year old American made one unforced error, hitting an easy forehand wide, and Nadal pounced on him for the kill, conjuring a superb forehand crosscourt pass and then closing the set out with an ace.

After running away with the second and third sets to wrap up the contest, Nadal paid tribute to his opponent.

"It is special to play Andre, one of the greatest players in history," said the Spaniard who is looking better and better on grass each passing day and may well mount a serous challenge for this title some day.

But, that's all in the future. Saturday was all about the past, a day to revel its glory. Adios Andre. Thanks for the memories.

In the men's doubles event, Leander Paes and Martin Damm, seeded seven, raced past Jan Hernych and David Skoch of the Czech Republic 6-4, 6-4, 6-3 to enter the third round.

Earlier in the day, India's Sanam Singh, seeded eight in the boys championship, started confidently with a 6-1, 6-2 defeat of Roberto Maytin of Venezuela.

But Sanaa Bhambri, handed a tough draw, went down 1-6, 2-6 to the second seed from Chinese Taipei, Jung-Jan Chan in the first round.

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