Seeing him in so much pain was difficult to watch. Seeing him battling to stay in the match when so many others would have given up was inspiring. But I found myself wishing that the match would end just so he wouldn’t have to run any more. I started thinking about his kids and about how difficult it is was going to be for him to pick them up in the coming days. And I started thinking about how difficult it must have been for Steffi Graff to watch her husband in so much pain.
But only Andre knew where his limits were. Only he knew how much he had left to give. After dropping the first set, he looked like he was in trouble. Again. But he pressed on and forced a tie-breaker in the second set. And after going up 6–3 in the tie-breaker, he pumped his fist and the crowd came to life. He clearly had a little left and he was going to leave every ounce of it on the court. He took the second set, and Dick Enberg declared that “greatness reveals itself under pressure and pain.”
Reality set in during the third set and Agassi’s limp was even more noticeable. He started taking big cuts when returning serve while just spinning in his own serve. He got down two breaks and it looked like he might just play out the remainder of the match and take his bows. But then he broke back. And then he held serve to make it 3–2 Becker, and once again, I started to think he might just pull this match out. Becker held his break though and won the third set.
Becker was up two sets to one and Agassi looked more like he ought to be on a trainer’s table than a tennis court. He continued to fight and he even earned a set point in the fourth set, but it wasn’t meant to be. Becker held on and won the match and the Andre Agassi-era of tennis finally came to an end. Afterward, the crowd cheered while Agassi’s pent up emotions spilled over, and he wept openly. When he got close to controlling his emotions, he took the microphone and said this:
“The scoreboard said I lost today, but what the scoreboard doesn’t say is what it is I have found. And over the last 21 years I have found loyalty. You have have pulled for me on the court and also in life. I have found inspiration. You have willed me to succeed—sometimes even in my lowest moments. And I have found generosity. You have given me your shoulders to stand on to reach for my dreams—dreams I could have never reached without you. Over the last 21 years I have found you and I will take you and the memory of you with me for the rest of my life. Thank you.”A powerful, one minute, heart-felt speech that brought tears to the eyes of everybody who watched. Including me.