Andre

Andre Agassi, thank you. I slept it over before writing this post to hopefully prevent sounding like Stuart Scott, as I admit some previous comments have. Your final US Open has been nothing short of a film-script. In the first match I couldn't stay awake through, you won two of three tiebreaks and 6-2 in the fourth to defeat Andrei Pavel. Then, in arguably one of the greatest matches ever played at this stage of the Open, you outlast a 21-year old from Cyprus. The match was looking like a landslide with the first two sets won 6-4, but Marcos Baghdatis took the third set 6-3. You were up 4-0 in the fourth set, but let nerves get the best of you to lose 5-7. Finally, everything was on the table in set five of possibly your final match. Dozing in and out, I amazingly woke up at 4-4 just in time to see a 20+ point ninth game with I believe eight deuces. At this point, Baghdatis was suffering from severe cramps making forfeit seem plausible. You held serve, but so did he, and it looked like we were headed to a fifth-set tiebreaker.

I was honestly smiling at the television at 1 a.m. knowing this was a win-win match. It was the perfect stage to go out, with the only other option a victory. This morning, I wonder if maybe the better scenario would have been a loss. It would be a shame to survive an "epic battle," and then leave the game in straight sets. Knowing Agassi though, this is a tongue-twisting far-fetched fate. I look forward to another win against the aptly named B. Becker from Germany. As Baghdatis eloquently stated after the match, you’ve “given so much to this sport.” Congrats.