It ain’t over yet!
After losing the first set, after trailing by two breaks and 4-0 in the pivotal third set, Andre Agassi last night rallied to extend his career at least another couple of days.
Agassi outlasted 75th-ranked, Andrei Pavel in a rough four-setter 6-7 (7-4), 7-6 (10-8), 7-6 (8-6), 6-2 before a record 23,700 frenzied fans in a party atmosphere at Ashe Stadium. The marathon match lasted 3 ½ hours and ended at 12:30 a.m.
The 23,000 Agassi crazies whooped, roared, chanted and danced in the aisles in spurring Agassi’s comeback. They played the first three sets in 3 hours, each ending in a tiebreaker, each wilder than the next.
Agassi, who will retire after the Open, will play his second round match Thursday night against favored Marcos Baghadatis.
“I want to be here the whole two weeks,” Agassi told the crowd. “You guys have pulled me through so much in my life. The loudest noise in the world is 23,000 quiet New Yorkers.”
Agassi was on the verge of tears as he served on double-match point. “I didn’t anticipate it to be this emotional,” he said. “I never played a match point where 20,000 people were just standing. It was really cool. It just hit me. I could’ve hit that second serve anywhere.”
There were plenty of scary moments. His wife, Steffi Graf looked on for the first 2 hours with a worried look. “I’m very proud of this day,” Agassi said. “I’m glad I get to do it again.”
With Pavel suffering stomach cramps after taking a 4-0 lead in the third set, Agassi reeled off five straight games to force a tiebreaker, finally finding his rhythm after not playing for 26 days. After being visited on court by a USTA doctor midway through the third set, Pavel took an antacid pill during a changeover and needed two bathroom breaks.
After that, the crowd roared across the final set-and-a-half. Agassi changed his racket after going down 4-0, using one with a higher tension.
The crowd was at its unruliest in the third-set tiebreaker. When the “Start Me Up” song was played during a towel-off break, the umpire ordered the music to stop and the fans booed loudly. On the next point, Pavel kicked the ball into the stands after missing a serve and the crowd jeered.
Agassi wasted three set points in the third-set tiebreaker, losing a 6-2 lead. But when he finally hit a forehand winner to win it, 8-6, the entire crowd jumped to its collective feet and cheered and danced for nearly a minute.
They played the first two tiebreaking sets in 2 hours – with Pavel winning 7-4 in the first tiebreaker, Agassi capturing the next one, 10-8.
Agassi barely survived the wild second-set tiebreaker, 10-8, to get back into the match. He converted his third set point on a long Pavel backhand. Across the first 2 ½ sets, he looked all of his 36 years, unable to get to any of the drop shots, missing some rare bullet service returns and without a reliable passing shot. But he survived.
After winning the second set, Agassi skipped out onto the court to begin the third set at 11 p.m., smiling. But the smile quickly evaporated, with Pavel storming to two consecutive breaks, silencing the crowd.
