Does 34-year-old have one last Great Run in Him?

Agassi, in top form, looks to US Open
Andre: 'I want to prepare myself for the biggest ones and do my best to be at my best'

By Sandra Harwitt
Special to tennisreporters.net

Susan Mullane/Camerawork USA

Siggi Bucher

Susan Mullane/Camerawork USA

OL' RELIABLE: The Agassi backhand hasn't changed over the years … at '04 Roland Garros (top photo), at '03 Australian Open (middle) and at '02 NASDAQ 100 (bottom).

FROM THE WESTERN & SOUTHERN FINANCIAL GROUP MASTERS IN CINCINNATI – He might be 34 years old with pundits constantly bugging him as to when he's going to hang up his rackets for good. But the way Andre Agassi is performing this week, he's not looking ready for the easy chair quite yet.

In fact, Agassi is looking rather lean and fit with a snap to his step, even with his first two matches going three sets. By the time he was facing 24-year-old Juan Ignacio Chela of Argentina in the third round on Thursday night, there was a definite swagger to his swift 6-3, 6-3 third-round victory in 62-minutes: on-and-off quickly, no point in wasting needless energy.

"I felt real good," Agassi said. "It's the first match in a long time where I felt that comfortable with my game. [It's] because I've had some matches. It's a confidence issue out there. You have to believe in what you're doing because a match is decided on just a few points. Finally having a few matches in a row is starting to help me feel more comfortable."

It would be foolish not to believe, however, that "Double A" is firmly ensconced in the twilight of his career at this point. You can feel it in how he responds to questions; he hedges carefully, intimating that he wants to keep on, but that he's not sure if he can consistently play at the level to make that an intelligent decision.

NOW, THE ELDER STATESMAN
However, none of this necessarily means that the lights are going out in the immediate future on the Agassi Express.
Early on in his career, Agassi was not the mature, well-rounded person he's become in later years. It's likely that he threw away opportunities to win more major titles, but that was then and this is now. Through the years, he's managed to become one of the more thoughtful and thought provoking athletes in sport, not to mention that he reached a point where he buckled down and reached his potential, winning eight Grand Slam titles. As a wise veteran with a healthy perspective on his career, he's concluded that he still wants to play and is attempting to go about organizing his senior years on the tour in the most advantageous of ways.

Yes, he signs up for many tournaments that, as they approach, he rethinks as not smart trips to make, and pulls out at the last moment. Without a doubt, this policy of planning his schedule week-by-week is leaving many Agassi tennis fans disappointed by his last-minute withdrawals. But, hopefully, his hardcore fans understand that for Agassi to continue on, he needs to do so at the direction of his body.

"The reason why one would keep to their schedule is because they have a body and a mind that allows them just to keep going," said Agassi, capably analyzing his situation. "Certainly that's something that I envy. The decision I make, I'm privileged to have the luxury of making those decisions. If I have to suffer a fine or something for pulling out of a tournament, it's not my reason for just pushing myself through it. So I get to do things on my terms, which is crucial more for me now than ever. You want to feel fresh. You want to feel healthy every week. But I just don't think that's realistic for me these days, so I want to prepare myself for the biggest ones and do my best to be at my best. I try to look at it as a strategy."

NO TITLES IN 16 MONTHS
The truth as mentioned above is that in recent months you could hear the wheels turning in Agassi's head that the concept of retirement was settling in as an inevitable occurrence, not a foreign concept. Truth be told, he hasn't won a title in 16 months and, outside of his stirring loss to Marat Safin in the Australian Open quarterfinals, has not made a huge dent at the big events. He was upset early at Roland Garros and, because of a chronically sore hip, was forced to withdraw from Wimbledon. He hasn't reached a semifinal since Indian Wells in March.

Back on his beloved US hardcourts, Tommy Haas out punched him in LA. Last week in Toronto, Andre looked a little better, getting revenge on Haas but then being shocked by Austrian Jurgen Meltzer, a player he likely would have schooled in his prime.

But if he can keep playing the way he has this week in Cincinnati – coming back from a one-set deficit on Mardy Fish in the first-round to win their battle before Fish retired at 4-1 in the final set with a back injury; toughing out a second-round match against '02 Aussie Open champ Thomas Johansson through a series of rain delays that kept the match going to close to midnight; then breezing past a persistent Chela – Agassi could carry on for a while longer.

He'll face a big test on Friday when he plays tough Spanish veteran Carlos Moya, the '02 Cincinnati titlist. Agassi has won two of their three previous meetings.

A Las Vegas showman at his core, Agassi could take a page from old rival Pete Sampras, who went out in spectacular fashion after winning the '02 US Open. But Agassi would have to first win the Open, which will be a very tall task given that his grind-'em-down, inside-the-baseline style is much more difficult to pull off when you're 34 then Sampras' serve-and-volley, keep-the-points short style was at age 32.

Agassi's decision could be coming any day now, or next year. He might have the Open as a fixed date in his mind to call it quits or he might be hoping to make the year-end Tennis Masters Cup in Houston and then call it quits. He may even make another run at the Aussie Open in January, the Slam where he has had the greatest success.

The truth is his up-and-down results are a hint in and of themselves that, away from the hard courts, Agassi is struggling. But it would be inadvisable to bet the house on when Agassi is going to make the decision to stay at home with his wife, Steffi Graf, and their kids because one thing you can be sure of: He's going to do his retirement moment his way.