Agassi's Final Interview Marks End of Era
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Contact: Liza Horan
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09/03/06 -
By Liza Horan, Editor
New York--Today Andre Agassi made the transition from main draw competitor to retired champion. The record book closes his file at 1,140 matches that garnered eight major titles--including two U.S. Open victories--60 singles titles, 30 runner-up trophies and one doubles victory. He was the first American man since 1924 to win the Olympic gold medal in tennis, and his pro career earned more than $31 million in prize money. His legendary status has been set for some time, but his legacy is still in the works.
As his final opponent, Benjamin Becker of Germany, approached the net to shake hands with the teary 36-year-old, the roar of the crowd drown out Agassi's congratulatory words and the 21-year-old's well wishes to Agassi, for whom the sound of more than 23,000 cheering fans was defeaning and the moment almost too big to grasp.
"I don't even know if I heard it, to be honest," Agassi said of Becker's greeting at the net. "But I felt, you know, it was my own sort of experience out there that was taking over at that point."
For several minutes, the only person of the more than 23,000 fans who took a seat was Agassi himself. He took it all in, looking, listening, crying, quivering.
Becker took the microphone first, saying: "It all seems like a movie for me today playing Andre. He's definitely one of a kind. For me it was a great honor to play him."
Agassi was next, with an eloquent yet unrehearsed, thank-you to fans.
Click here for his quote. He would later reflect on those words, saying, "There's a thousand things that were going through my mind. I think I've prepared for that speech for 21 years...The pain of the goodbye really lifts the joy of the experience. I'm very much at peace with that."
Immediately after his public goodbye on court, Agassi walked the concrete inner hallway of Arthur Ashe Stadium to the locker room, where he was applauded by many players assembled there.
"I tell you, the greatest applause that any person will ever receive in their life is that which comes from their peers," he said. "It's not like we're a company who's working together to accomplish something. We're people that succeed, in some cases, at the demise of the other. To have them applaud you is the ultimate compliment."
By the time Agassi made it out of the locker room and down the hall into the interview room--which seemed more jam-packed than Pete Sampras' final interview--his eyes were bloodshot and glassy from crying, and his mouth was turned into a shy yet amused smile.
For a player who has sat for more than 1,000 post-match interviews--let alone hundreds of one-on-ones and appearances for radio and television--could there be any new answers? And where to begin with the questions?
Agassi's tennis career has been storied. From the child phenom trained by Nick Bollettieri, to the flashy teenager with long bleach-blond hair who rose the No. 1, then toppled all the way to No. 141 in Nov. 1997. Hitting ground like that seemed to awaken something in Agassi that turned him from brash to earnest. He trained harder and smarter, traded the cockiness for humility and, because he only wanted to play tennis and win, Agassi worked his way up to No. 5 within 12 months. The character such a transformation took has been a mark of the man, and one that drew him even more fans than beforehand.
Such a rich storyline begs for many angles on how to cover Agassi's retirement.
Will your back require surgery? How did you feel stepping onto the court for the last time? Why did you pick New York as your final tour stop? Did Steffi help you prepare for retirement? What next?
Right now Agassi is not sure what tomorrow brings, except that refraining from world-class tennis will mean less pain for his back and more time with his family friends, foundation and other humanitarian and business ventures.
Agassi transcends tennis for his character and how he's given time, money and attention to underprivileged children and other causes. Still, the moral of his story is that tennis was the means for him to learn life skills and become and do greater things.
"You're out there alone. You're playing a sport that requires you to problem-solve. It requires you to do it in a somewhat emotional state," Agassi said. "It's a bit of life there. You learn to trust yourself and you learn to push yourself."
Agassi was humble about his accomplishments, and appears to be a spiritual person who considers himself a student of life. He talked about being at peace, striving for goals and giving back to the game and those in need.
While Agassi's legacy beyond tennis remains open, his legacy in pro tennis is sealed.
"It's important for me to leave this game better off. I hope they're better off for having me, because it's me being much better off for having them. So that's my hope," Agassi said. "I don't know what [my legacy] is. Everybody needs to see it through their lens. For me it's been about trying to give more than I take."
Regarding how that shaggy-haired, younger version of himself transformed into this clean-shaven, gracious man, Agassi said, "I think there's been many things that I feel like I haven't asked for that I've had to carry and I've always benefited from. It's been a lot of both. There's been a lot of difficulty that has come with this journey and there's also been a lot of rewards, which as I've gotten older I've realized that most of us experience those things, just in different ways.
"Who I was at 17 is most likely not far off how most of us were at 17, except I was just expressing it a little differently," he said, laughing.
By the time questions by the journalists were exhausted, the most famous one, Bud Collins, asked Agassi if he had a question for the group.
"Are you guys going to really miss me or are you just acting like that?"
There were big laughs, a standing ovation, and few dry eyes.
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