Andre Agassi - The New Heavy Weight Champion

by Jim McLennan

Long Live the New King

How about the punch he threw at the end of the fourth set tiebreak? Agassi's incredible victory at the Australian Open was likened to that of a heavy weight boxer in many of the press accounts following the match.

"The cold beauty of Agassi's game built on brute force", "An artistic and bruising victory", "Agassi dismantles the field", "Sampras' capitulation in the fifth set of their semifinal".

Capitulaton after Agassi withstood a 7-0 shellacking in the third set tiebreaker, a barrage of Sampras' heavy artillery throughout the fourth set (37 aces in all), and being down 5-4 in that tiebreaker, Sampras two points from the match. After winning the tiebreaker Agassi danced to his chair for the changeover prior to the fifth set and threw a mock punch. This punch was not an uppercut, and not a body blow, but a punch one would throw at an opponent who was going down, a punch that would end the fight, a short shot delivered to the head of an opponent on his way to the mat. If you have the match on tape look for this punch, it tells the story of the match, of days to come, of an old Sampras and a renewed Agassi, of a sea change in men's tennis. A wonderful punch !!

Websters defines capitulation as an unconditional surrender. Are they saying that the man who would be the greatest who ever played (Sampras) unconditionally surrendered to Agassi in the fifth set. Certainly Agassi withstood all that Sampras could throw at him, and still he got up off the mat to compete, to fight, to never give an inch. Recall the astonishing punishment that Muhammed Ali absorbed from George Foreman in "The Rumble in the Jungle". Ali dismantled Foreman by absorbing a prolonged barrage of heavy blows, and then knocking an exhausted Foreman out in the last stages of the fight.

I am trying to remember a similar 6-1 fifth set gag from America's preeminent fighters, Jimmy Connors or John McEnroe, and memory does not serve me here. 

Patrick Rafter on Sampras, "He tries to downplay the reason why he lost, and gives no respect to the other player." After Agassi's semifinal victory, Pete said, "I injured my hip (flexor) in the match but do not want to take anything away from Agassi's victory." Baloney. Recoiling from Sampras' self-serving hubris, I cannot remember similar excuses from Agassi after final round losses to Pete at the US Open or at Wimbledon.

Our newly crowned heavy weight champion Andre Agassi has gained many an admirer with his feats over the past year. Long live the new king!