Andre Agassi is hobbling through the final event of a legendary career. I'd like to get my hopes up that he can make a run for the title and go out on top, but with his back as bad as it's been, I'm not going to get my hopes up. If he can make it far enough that I can see his final match on broadcast television, I'll be happy. Anything on top of that will be icing.
So instead of riling myself up for this event, I'll be content with memories. My all-time favorite being an early-round match in the French Open, sometime in the very-early 1990s Agassi was getting his rear handed to him by a chump when. During a break, he leaned his racket against his chair and smashed it in two with his foot, like you might do with an extra-long piece of firewood. He reached into his bag and grabbed a new racket, and - without hesitation - smashed it in the same way. A third racket met the same fate. The fourth he used to win the match.
My favorite memory would have to be when he showed up at Wimbleton with a *completely white* polo shirt. The Nike logo was embroidered in white on white. I was disapointed the previous year when he had to sit Wimbleton out because of the white-clothes rule. (Remember that his early 90's shirts were the height of decoration, in a way that only the early 90's could have produced; this was before orange was a shirt color for anyone not perched in a hunting blind).
I still have a pair of old Agassi tennis shoes at my parents. Boy, was I the coolest eighth grader no the tennis team when I wore those. (Actually: I wasn't. There was a guy Bill who had had a pair months before me. And he was a better tennis player than I, but that had nothing to do with the shoes).
Oh man... I actually got the Nike Agassi shoes with the pink trim after I saw him in the 1990 French Open. Do you remember that? Black tennis shorts over pink spandex?
Every once in a while, I have to face the fact theat one of my childhood heros had a mullet.
And then, to go out to a German named Becker! Like we haven't seen an Agassi-Becker matchup before... (The SI.com article did mention that Benjamin isn't related to Boris, for those of us who were wondering).
I caught part of the match. It was frustrating to watch, knowing that he probably could have opped up the court with the kid if his back hadn't been so bad. At one point he served, faulted, and couldn't even stand up all the way before the second serve.