With a comeback title in his pocket and his back-nerve injury now under control, Andre Agassi is riding high as he moves deeper into his American hardcourt summer.
The legend capped a return after two months off court hurt as he lifted a fourth title on Sunday at the $380 000 Mercedes-Benz trophy in Los Angeles, the 60th of his storied career.
But Agassi took the precaution on Monday of pulling out of this week’s Washington ATP event, where he is a five-time champion.
The 35-year-old withdrew so as not to compromise his run to the US Open starting in four weeks. He was seeded second in Washington behind Andy Roddick — a late withdrawal himself from Los Angeles eight days ago.
”At this point in my career I have to be extremely selective about the amount of matches that I play in preparation of the US Open,” Agassi said in fax. ”I’m sorry that I won’t be there this year but hope to return in 2006.”
Roddick, also trying to maintain energy for the fourth Grand Slam of the season, couldn’t really complain about his rival’s exit.
”I can’t say I’m surprised about it. He knows best. He knows better than anybody what keeps you out there at 35. That’s why he has been able to have results like yesterday.”
The Agassi camp is careful not to mention the ”R” word.
With his medical worry currently under control, Agassi is determined to make no decisions on when he finally retires until he feels the time has come — which is apparently no time soon.
”The plan has always been to play hard, now, each week is something to think about,” Agassi said. ”I want to play hard for as long as I can, I won’t assess anything until the end of the year.
”I must make a decision [on retirement] based up on the lives affected because of what I do — starting with my family.”
The veteran managed to win in LA after training for only six days, polishing his game with each match. ”I’ve been going for everything, buying myself a lot of margin. It feels great.”
”You always worry about the injury, you don’t know what going on. I’d never felt that before. But now I’m thinking only about my game, When I was hurt, things were not under my control — I felt helpless.
”I won’t ever play in that condition. I want to give myself the best chance. In my game, I have to be running for everything. I’ll continue to find reasons to compete,” Agassi said.
”If I can’t do that, there’s not much point to it; it’s painful emotionally and physically.” – Sapa-DPA