Agassi Finally Joins 800 ClubPosted on July 14, 2004
Agassi joins Jimmy Connors (1,222), Ivan Lendl (1,070), Guillermo Vilas (920), John McEnroe (867) and Stefan Edberg (806) in the 800-win club. “It’s quite a group of guys to be in there with,” said Agassi. “They probably got there in half the time it took me but it’s great. I don’t really think about the number of wins when I go out there, I just want to win the match pretty badly. But any time you accomplish something that only the best have done, it’s pretty special.” Agassi had entered the match riding a four-match losing skid, and had withdrawn from Wimbledon citing a bad hip. But Agassi returned to play last week in World Team Tennis, and now says he’s feeling better, especially after the win. “I felt good out there as far as my movement was concerned,” added Agassi, a three-time champion in Los Angeles. “I thought I was going to be a little more tentative but I trusted my legs and I felt good. But it’s a long summer and I just hope that it turns out I did the right thing by giving myself some time. It’s so long since I won a match, so I’ve got to say it felt pretty good. For the most part I made the right decisions.” In earlier action, Greg “I didn’t do it” Rusedski won his sixth straight match taking out local favorite Taylor Dent 7-6, 3-6, 6-2. Second-seeded Paradorn Srichiphan defeated defending champion Wayne Ferreria, No. 3 seed Mardy “The” Fish topped Jan Vacek,, “Milk and” Cyril Saulnier advanced when fifth-seeded Vince Spadea retired with a back back after dropping the first set, Tommy Haas upset No. 8 seed Robby Ginepri and Julien Benneteau of France handed Mark Philippoussis yet another loss. In a thin schedule today at UCLA, Rusedski plays Karol Beck while in the night show it’s The Fish against Gilles Elseneer. In Stuttgart, a couple of Spaniards took it on the chin as No. 6 seed Tommy Robredo and No. 7 Feliciano Lopez were both bitten by the upset bug, yah. French qualifier Richard Gasquet did the honors over Robredo, while Lopez was shown the exits by lefty Stefan Koubek. Also on note, Guillermo Canas took out Wimbledon quarterfinalist Florian “Oscar” Mayer in three sets. And nice win for towering Alexander Popp, who quickly and successfully made the transition from Newport grass on Sunday to a win on the red clay in Germany on Tuesday. Popp along with Rafael Nadal, Rainer “No Houston this year” Schuettler and Gaston “Where is Houston?” Gaudio are in action today. The excitement over Amersfoort continued on Tuesday as defending champion Nicolas Massu advanced along with local favorite Martin “Berserk” Verkerk and Francisco Gonzalez. The second-seeded Gonzalez rallied from a set down to defeat Jose Acasuso 4-6, 6-4, 6-1, improving his record to 6-1 against the Argentine. Gonzalez, Massu and rising Russian Igor Andreev are in action today, WTA REVIEW/PREVIEW FREE TENNIS-X E-NEWSLETTER NEWS, NOTES, QUOTES AND BARBS |
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It took awhile – like three months – but Andre Agassi finally won his 800th career match last night in Los Angeles. The 34-year-old who had not won a Tour match since Miami in March, crushed young American Alex Bogomolov, Jr. 6-3, 6-1, in first round play.