Hope Agassi keeps defying his age

Jaz was just happy that her daddy’s work was done. It was everyone else who was so dispirited, so unsure if they’d seen the last of Agassi, hopeful that his tennis mortality has yet another ounce of elasticity.

Why not? If Agassi’s health is intact, there is no reason that Sunday night had to be a sunset. Instead, think of it as extended daylight.

Agassi can play on because he isn’t Pete Sampras. At the end of his career — one underscored with his memorable 2002 US Open — Sampras was in search of the right exit sign. He was always looking, wondering when to say when.

True to his serve-and-volley form, Sampras liked the game quick and easy. One, two, three, point. Sampras was a marvelous champion and has a sacred place in history, but he wasn’t into the labor and patience, as his French Open experiences revealed. And Sampras was not a fan of the process, as his abbreviated practices sometimes displayed.

Agassi craves the process and digs the labor. He is inspired by the results he sees from running up the mountains high above the Las Vegas Strip. He is pushed to disprove the myths of aging by running youth ragged on the court. Agassi doesn’t deny age. He just tries to defy it. All the cortisone shots in the world can’t numb him to the high of competition and the pain he still feels from losing.

“Right now, the fact that this hurts so bad will be encouraging,” said Gil Reyes, Agassi’s longtime friend and training guru. “I think it will light the fire. Agassi seemed to feel exactly the same way after finishing off his 20th consecutive year at the US Open with a journey one part mesmerising, one part uplifting and one part unfathomable for a 35-year-old.

“As of now, my intention is to keep working and keep doing what it is I do,” he said. “You know, the only thing better than the last 20 years will be the last 21 years.”

So it was very appropriate that the man in the gray stubble, the one with the two kids and sciatica, employed a strategy of longevity in a very special effort to outlast Federer’s perfection before falling, 6-3, 2-6, 7-6 (1), 6-1.

How do you nudge Picasso’s elbow in mid-brushstroke? Agassi extended the match and Federer with a savvy selection of drop shots and dastardly angles, with Ben-Gay groans as he reached for gets, with winners concocted from years of experience. For a while, Federer’s beautiful mind was confused by Agassi’s math.

Then, with Agassi ahead, 4-2, in the third set, Federer regained his liquid moves and unflappable demeanor and began methodically dismantling the rowdy vibe of a crowd that was practically linked together in a seance, trying to mentally and spiritually lift Agassi.

The New York Times