But Agassi, perhaps more acutely than anyone here except his old foe and contemporary Pete Sampras, seems vividly aware of every potential ambush His opening statement could scarcely have been more pointed. He served a withering ace.What followed was close enough to a master class to make no difference. His beautiful groundstrokes lapped around Wessels after the tie-break like waves breaching a broken sea-wall Wessels was covered in sweat and, ultimately, confusion. Agassi picked his way, often exquisitely, to victory.”I guess,” said Agassi afterwards, “I felt pretty good out there It’s always hard to tell in the first round.
He was a tough opponent to have and I think I got a little bit lucky in the first set. He was serving, I believe, 85 per cent first serves going into the tie-breaker, and he was serving big. Then, in the tie-breaker I think he missed every first serve. He had to deal with his second serve for the first time in the match and that was a big problem for him. It was a crucial time for him to all of a sudden have to face serving me on a second Then I got an early break in the second and I was well set I served well I took care of my service well today I was executing my shots I felt very clean on my groundstrokes. I did that, and I made my first serve when I really needed it.”In some ways the explanation was as impressive as the performance. Agassi has often talked of mastering the game intellectually, of thinking it all through, and now when he can claim Grand Slam triumph on every surface, when he can go out into the sunshine and strip down a young tennis warrior as though he wandered in, raw and guileless, from some club court in the suburbs, his words inevitably carry a new weight.They are those of a master performer attuned to the need to resist an ever-gathering challenge from younger, stronger players.
He is asked again about the prospect of retirement, of his and perhaps Sampras’s. How hard will it be to give up the fight? “I suppose,” he said, “all athletes have their own ideas as to how they see their careers ending. For me, I don’t know how my career’s going to end or really when it’s going to end. I can say I hope it ends when I really just can’t do it any more, can’t win any more. I hope it happens no sooner or later than that.”You have to acknowledge that guys getting credit out there are not just getting it because they are young, and maybe stronger, it’s because they’re playing the game of tennis in a special kind of way. That should be respected, starting with me and Pete because we’re the ones out there trying to beat them.”Here, Agassi, like Sampras on the first day, has made a rather stunning commitment to the challenge of holding back the years, and the young lions.
When Wessels had been put away, Agassi bowed and blew a kiss to every corner of the Centre Court, happily, shamelessly working his constituency Once, he was rather contemptuous of the place. The boy from Las Vegas Boulevard was a little bewildered by its conventions. But he came back and conquered, and when he did it the diva Streisand sat in the Centre Court and talked about the mysteries of Zen.Yesterday he was asked about the gold ring worn by his latest soulmate, Steffi Graf, and he dealt with it as coolly as one of Peter Wessels’ serves It wasn’t, he said, his questioner’s business. That was to judge him as a tennis player – and certainly he was happy to submit to any verdict on that score.He was happy with his form – and his thinking.