Tennis star Andre Agassi (#171, Topic G)

Today, in addition to the World Cup 2006 final, is also the Wimbledon final -- and the final tournament for Andre Agassi, from which he exited in the second round and after which he announced his retirement. In 1994, Agassi was the Wimbledon champion; by tradition, the champion plays the opening match the following year. Somehow, my son managed to secure two opening-day tickets to Wimbledon 1995, so we were there to watch Agassi in the centre court. It was obvious that he was off form, as he barely survived -- and his opponent was a mere qualifier. After the centre-court match, we moved about and saw, if my memory serves me, Michael Chang in one of the courts. In the early 1990s, Chang was ranked as high as No. 2 in the world, but grass was not his surface. (He won the French Open, which is played on clay, a surface that seemed to suit his playing style better.) What I remember most vividly about Agassi was when he and Evan Lendel played in the final of Legg Mason classic, a Washington DC tournament held in August, invariably with temperature in the 90s. That year was no exception. Still, despite the unbearable heat, the two champions played a very respectable game, 2 sets to 1, with the final set (and the match) ending in 6:4. What impressed me most was these two players' professional ethics -- they played their best despite physical discomfort. Indeed, in an article I wrote about Kriegspiel (a variation of western-chess) I used this as an example to chide professional western-chess players' fondness for "grandmaster draws" -- whereby each side making 20 or so perfunctory moves and calling the game a "draw" -- equivalent to two tennis players leaving the court when the game was 4:4 in the first set. This would never happen in tennis; it was common in western chess.