Andre Agassi, magnificent in defeat to Marat Safin in a five-set classic semifinal, Thursday said he will be back next year to shoot for a fifth Australian Open title.
The unseeded Russian played one of the greatest matches of his turbulent career to end 33-year-old Agassi’s unconquered 26-match reign at the Australian Open, 7-6 (8/6), 7-6 (8/6), 5-7, 1-6, 6-3 in three hours and 42 minutes.
Safin’s tour de force win was Agassi’s first loss in Melbourne since going down to compatriot Vince Spadea in the round of 16 in the 1999 Grand Slam event.
Agassi will leave for home with wife Steffi Graf and their two kids while 24-year-old Safin will play in Sunday’s final against either second seed Roger Federer of Switzerland or Spain’s third seed Juan Carlos Ferrero, whose semifinal is on Friday.
Agassi, who would have been the 11th-oldest Grand Slam finalist if he had won on Thursday, was asked at his press conferences about the chances of seeing him again in Melbourne next year.
”Right now, pretty good. I mean I have no plans to do otherwise,” he said. ”But a year’s a long time. I really look forward to being back.”
Also raising speculation that this might be Agassi’s last trip to play in Melbourne was his customary wave of acknowledgement to all four sections of the Rod Laver Arena crowd.
”I was just saying thank you to them,” he said. ”They’ve been great to me over the years, Just a lot of fun to compete in front of.
”And you never know when it’s your last, right? So you want to say bye properly.”
Such was the high quality of the semifinal, that even though Agassi lost he edged Safin in total points, 171 to 170.
”It was a tough one today, Marat played at an incredibly high level and he came up with a lot of great shots when he needed to,” Agassi said.
”I had chances in the first two sets, a couple of set points slipped away in the first set and there was a point for a break in the second. That’s a big hole when you’re two sets to love down.
”The fifth set was just a break of serve. I missed two regulation cross-court shots to lose my serve from 30-all and I didn’t recover from that.”
Agassi thought he had the momentum after clawing back from two tiebreak sets down to force the semifinal into a fifth set.
”I felt pretty good about my chances at that point. But when a guy has a weapon like that, he was serving so well tonight, you can get through so many games without spending that energy and hitting those crucial nervous shots, where you force a guy to do something,” he said.
”I felt reasonably well. Anything that I wasn’t feeling great about had a lot to do with him. He was serving big, he was really returning my second serve really well, really aggressive.
”I only lost my serve twice. Once in the fifth and once in the second, so I forced him to play at that level the whole time.
”Credit to the way he played. It was a high standard from start to finish.” — Sapa-AFP