The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Agassi to retire after U.S. Open

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Sunday, Jun 25, 2006

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Sport - Tennis

Agassi to retire after U.S. Open

Nirmal Shekar

London : One of the longest and most fascinating journeys undertaken by an athlete in the entire history of professional sport is about to end. A sporting Odysseus is getting ready for his final bow.

Andre Agassi, 36, who played his first Grand Slam event 20 years ago in New York, announced here on Saturday that this would be his last Wimbledon and he would retire after the 2006 U.S. Open.

Sporting his patented winsome smile and keeping his emotions in check, the 1992 Wimbledon champion said that he was here to "enjoy this tournament for the last time. All my dreams started here. 1992 feels like yesterday for me.''

One of only five players in the history of men's tennis to have achieved a career Grand Slam — Don Budge, Fred Perry, Roy Emerson and Rod Laver are the others — Agassi said he had the time recently to "take stock of a lot of things.''

One last time

"I have done this for 20-plus years...21 years of incredible memories,'' Agassi said.

"The U.S. Open will be my last tournament. I wanted to come back here (Wimbledon) one last time and I wanted to end it in New York.''

Agassi is playing Wimbledon after a gap of two years and if he wins his first two rounds we could see a fascinating contest between the soon-to-retire icon and the two-time French Open champion and second seed, Rafael Nadal.

No regrets

For the man who has won eight Grand Slam titles — four in Melbourne, two in New York and one each in Wimbledon and Paris — an epic journey approaches its end. But Agassi will leave without any regrets.

"The day I won in Paris (June 1999) was the day I knew I would never have another regret the rest of my career,'' he said.

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