Andre Agassi has not finished with Wimbledon yet. This year’s campaign ended with him being shot down in five sets by Australia’s Mark Philippoussis in the fourth round. But the oldest man ever to hold the world number one ranking immediately dismissed suggestions that the emotionally draining defeat was one which would automatically bring a decision on when he hangs up his racquet any closer.
Asked if he would back at Wimbledon next year, Agassi snapped: ”Sure. Why wouldn’t I be back? I am still a tennis player and this is the place to be.
”It is not me that has being talking about it [retirement], it’s you that have been talking about it.
”I’ve always said I won’t know when its over until it’s there.
So I’m planning to be back next year.”
By the time next year’s Wimbledon comes around, Agassi will be 34 and, all being well, Jaden Gil, his 20-month son with wife Steffi Graf, will have a brother or sister.
It remains to be seen whether the American’s appetite for the continual grind of practice and tournaments and all the hassle that goes with it can survive the expansion of his family and the passing of another year.
But for the moment, he insists he is happy to keep pounding away to maintain the phenomenal level of fitness that has enabled him to preserve his competitiveness in what is increasingly a young man’s game.
If anything, he said, the commitments involved in being a father made defeats such as the one he suffered on Monday easier to absorb, despite the pain of knowing that there may not be too many more chances to succeed.
”The bad news is that it is more disappointing because it is another year lost at Wimbledon. But the good news in it is that you get to go home to your family and you get to regroup and you get to get out again and keep trying.
”If something special happened all the time, it wouldn’t be so special — you have to try and keep it in perspective.”
Despite his disappointment, Agassi still found time to pay generous tribute to the way Philippoussis had performed.
”I felt like we both were doing well to give ourselves the chances and he ended up being the one to take them in the end,” Agassi said.
”So little can decide each set — it is so so frustrating at times. But he was definitely the better player at the key moments in the match.
”There were a lot of moments where either one of us could have taken the match and he ended up doing it in the end.”
Phippoussis’s reward for his 6-3, 2-6, 6-7 (4/7), 6-3, 6-4 win was a quarter-final meeting with another unseeded player, Germany’s Alexander Popp, in which he will start as clear favourite to win.
It was a success the Australian will relish after battling back from a string of knee operations which had threatened to end his career.
But things might easily have turned against him in the middle of the final set.
After Philippoussis had secured his critical break in the seventh game, Agassi had two break points to level things up again in the next game.
But on both points, the Australian whose serve has earned him the nickname ‘Scud’, came up with service winners before going on to hold his serve.
Two games later he was at match point and predictably he finished things off by hammering down a serve that even the best returner in the game could do nothing about.
Philippoussis said the victory had justified all the work he had done in getting back in shape after three operations to reconstruct his left knee.
”I’ve been working very hard all year on my fitness and it’s starting to pay off. It is as simple as that.”
”Every match I’ve played here I’ve got better and better and today I just had to hang in there and give it my all.” – Sapa-AFP