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Agassi ready for final bow

The eight-time Grand Slam champion, who has seen limited action this year, says he will retire after the U.S. Open.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published June 25, 2006

WIMBLEDON, England - Andre Agassi's voice wavered and his eyes welled up. After years of dealing with injuries, after months of contemplation, he spoke the words he knew he had to, at the place he knew he had to.

Turning what was expected to be a routine pre-Wimbledon news conference into something significant, Agassi announced Saturday he will retire after the U.S. Open, leaving tennis after two decades during which he collected a career Grand Slam and morphed from an "Image Is Everything" youngster to elder statesman.

"It's been a lot of sacrifices the last few months, trying to get myself right to come back here and enjoy this tournament for the last time," said Agassi, who has played only one match the past three months because of back trouble.

"It's been a long road this year for me, and for a lot of reasons. It's great to be here. This Wimbledon will be my last, and the U.S. Open will be my last tournament."

The 36-year-old American is seeded 25th at the All England Club, where play begins Monday. He intends to enter as many as four hardcourt events between Wimbledon and the Open, in what will amount to a farewell tour for one of the most popular and successful tennis players in history.

"He'll go down as one of the guys who changed our sport in a lot of ways, not only the way he played the game, but also the way that he conducted himself on and off the court," 2002 Wimbledon champion Lleyton Hewitt said. "There's not too many more recognizable people in tennis. The sport probably owes a lot to him."

Agassi said he made up his mind a few months ago to leave at the end of 2006, but he wanted to make it public at the All England Club, where he won his first Grand Slam title.

The kid with the denim shorts, Day-Glo shirts and flowing hair is now a father of two with a shaved head who wore an all-white track suit Saturday.

"I grew up in the public eye," said Agassi, who married 22-time major champion Steffi Graf in 2001. "I sort of had to learn some tough lessons in front of a lot of people, one of which was to respect the greatest tournament in our sport."

He didn't always feel that way.

After a 1987 first-round loss, he didn't return to Wimbledon until 1991. One of his justifications was that his outlandish persona and bright outfits were a poor fit for this most traditional of tournaments. His baseline game wasn't the prototypical path to success on grass, either.

But he changed his mind, beat Goran Ivanisevic in the 1992 Wimbledon final, and credits that victory with changing the course of his career.

"It's like it was yesterday, 14 years ago," he said. "I imagine it's that way when your child goes off to college. You say, "What the heck happened in all these years?' It feels like yesterday for me, as vivid, as alive as ever."

A magician at the baseline and one of the game's greatest returners, Agassi has won 60 singles titles. That includes eight at Grand Slam tournaments; he's one of only five men with at least one championship at each. His rivalry with Pete Sampras helped boost tennis' popularity in the 1990s; Agassi is the last active player from their tremendous generation of American men, a group that included major champions Jim Courier and Michael Chang.

"Andre announcing his retirement is truly the end of an era. He was one of the best players I competed against and, in turn, made me a better player," said Sampras, who went 20-14 vs. Agassi, including a win in the 2002 U.S. Open final, Sampras' final match. "His longevity and desire to compete at the highest level have been remarkable."

Ranked No. 1 as recently as May 2003, at 33 the oldest man to hold the top spot, he made a stirring run to the U.S. Open final last year, the seventh time he was the runnerup at a major.

"I had a lot of reasons to be motivated to shoot for another successful year, but for many reasons that hasn't been the case, and I wanted to do everything I could just to get back here," said Agassi, who missed Wimbledon the past two years because of injuries.

He's set to play 69th-ranked Boris Pashanski of Serbia-Montenegro in the first round and could face French Open champ Rafael Nadal in the third. Said Nadal: "He's a legend."

[Last modified June 25, 2006, 03:29:55]