Andre Shows that Courage is Everything

With his movement clearly restricted by an aching 36-year-old body, Andre Agassi rallied from 0-4 in the third set to score a courageous 6-7(4), 7-6(8), 7-6(6), 6-2 victory over Andrei Pavel in front of a record 23,736 fans at Flushing Meadows to reach the second round of his final US Open. Agassi will next face eighth seed and Australian Open finalist Marcos Baghdatis in the second round.

With Agassi and Pavel trading heavy baseline blows for three sets before the eight-time Grand Slam champion blew open the match in the second set, the match looked anything but a contest between two thirty-somethings. However, Pavel took every opportunity to test Agassi's legs - and painful lower back - running him from side-to-side and forcing him to chase a number of drop shots. Pavel's trademark single-handed backhand - so difficult to read - was damaging, and the Romanian won 13 of 16 net approaches in the first set alone.

Agassi raced to a 2-0 lead in the first set but immediately gave back a break to Pavel - the last break until the third set. Pavel, ranked No. 75, had lost in the first round of the Open six of the past nine years and surprised the pro-Agassi crowd by taking the first set in a tie-break.

Agassi, who staved off a break point with an ace at 4-4 in the second set, held his nerve to win the second-set tie-break 10-8 to level the match at one set all. But, instead of being energized by the crowd, Agassi came out flat in the third set, and gave up the first break since the third game of the match. Agassi, who looked in discomfort when stretched wide on both wings, was then broken to love in his next service game and the set looked over when Pavel held serve to go up 4-0.

Known as a great front-runner during his career, Agassi dug deep. After coach Darren Cahill brought out three new racquets, Agassi won the next five games as Pavel began to show signs of a stomach complaint. Agassi later told the crowd in his on-court interview that the new racquets had a tighter string tension. "The past few days it's been humid and I went down a pound," Agassi told interviewer John McEnroe. "But it was too loose - I wasn't controlling the ball and said I needed to get it back up."

Agassi, who had not fallen before the quarterfinals of the Open in the past five years and last suffered a first-round defeat at the US Open in 1993, won five consecutive games and ultimately took the set to a tie-break. On the stroke of midnight, Agassi danced around a Pavel second serve to hit a inside-out forehand winner to take the tie-break on his fourth set point.

He then broke Pavel in the first game of the fourth set and raced to a 4-0 lead, taking a stranglehold on the match, which finally ended after 3 hrs., 31 mins. Agassi fired 17 aces and clipped 67 winners.

Agassi said in his on-court interview: "I want to be here real bad for the whole two weeks... I really want to leave my best on the court... to get through a difficult one. I'm very proud of this day and I'm glad it gets to happen again.

"The first three sets could have gone either way and that third set I was pretty lucky to get back into it... I had to pick it up in the end."

The attendance of 23,736 was a record for a night session at the US Open.