By Jeff Agase
DAILY BRUIN STAFF
[email protected]
Sure, the schedule for last night’s Mercedes-Benz Cup listed the
Andre Agassi-Gustavo Kuerten match as a quarterfinal. And yes,
technically it was. But to an unknowing observer, Agassi’s 7-6 (3),
3-6, 6-4 win over a resilient Kuerten looked like one of the best
finals played in tennis all year. The marquee match-up between two
tennis heavyweights landed so early in the 32-man tournament only
because Kuerten has been recovering from hip surgery and has only a
few results in 2002. Whatever Kuerten has been doing to get back
into playing form paid beautiful dividends against Agassi. He
showed no signs of hampered mobility and only faded near the end of
the two-hour slugfest. "At the end, I was a little tired and no
longer had my best strengths," Kuerten said. "I tried to fight
until the end and enjoy the atmosphere." Meanwhile, Agassi was
Agassi. Executing his return game with an almost disturbing level
of perfection, the tournament’s No. 2 seed rode a net cord and
swinging volley to a tiebreak win in the first set. "It was a good
match, in that there was a high standard straight from the
beginning," Agassi said. Kuerten had been hanging with Agassi
throughout the first set, but it remained to be seen if he could
keep up physically and mentally in what he later called his biggest
match of the year. When Kuerten’s lethal one-handed backhand helped
him break Agassi’s serve and go up 1-0, fans knew they had
something special on their hands. "The first game of the second set
turned out to be a crucial game," Agassi said. "He hit some great
shots and the next thing you know, I’m down a break." He would
remain down a break until Kuerten broke him again to take the
second set 6-3. That’s when alternating chants of "Gu-ga!" and
"A-ga-ssi!" started appearing between almost every pair of points.
When a particularly bourgeois-looking woman was too distracted to
take her seat, fans began yelling, "sit down!" to ensure that the
flow of spectacular tennis continued undelayed. "This was as good a
crowd as you could have ever hoped for," Agassi said. "You triple
the size of that crowd, and you’ve got the U.S. Open. I thoroughly
enjoy playing here." Kuerten went on a service rampage to begin the
third set, winning 10 straight service points. But Agassi fired a
few aces and service winners of his own and managed to tie it 3-3.
The storm weathered, Agassi broke Kuerten’s 10-point streak and his
serve in the same game then held at love to take a 5-3 lead.
Kuerten fought off two match points and struggled through seven
deuces to pull within a game, only to lose the next game and the
match. Even after the win, Agassi was thoroughly impressed – and
perplexed – by Kuerten’s backhand. "Guga has the best one-handed
backhand in the game of tennis," he said. "There is not another
backhand that you can even compare with his. The problem is that
you want to play away from it, but you also have to play
percentages. I can’t say that I’m going to hit every shot without
going to his backhand." Agassi will play towering Belarussian Max
Mirnyi in the semifinals Saturday. Mirnyi was a 6-4, 7-6 (5) winner
over Michael Llodra earlier Friday.