23/06/2012 08:17 CEST - Rassegna Internazionale

Wimbledon - 20 anni dopo, Agassi ricorda l’estasi e l’agonia della vittoria (The New York Times)

Has it really been 20 years since Andre Agassi won Wimbledon, since he rose above the external critics and internal monologue with his long, faux-blond hair streaming out of the back of his cap?

Already 20 years since he showed all the doubters, himself included, that he truly did have the right Grand Slam stuff in what was supposed to be the wrong place?

This being the summer of 2012, with another Wimbledon looming next week, the answer is yes. Agassi, who has long possessed one of the best memories in tennis, recalls much of his breakthrough run in 1992 with documentary-ready precision, although not quite all of it.

In an interview from Las Vegas last week, he confused his obscure second-round opponent in 1992, Eduardo Masso, with his obscure fourth-round opponent, Christian Saceanu. He recalled Goran Ivanisevic finishing off the first-set tiebreaker in the final with a bold second serve when it in fact ended with one of Agassi’s own forehand passing shots landing wide.

But Agassi, who plans to make a commemorative visit to Wimbledon this year, remembers the essential as if it happened 20 minutes ago. He can take you on a blow-by-blow, thought-by-thought countdown to and then through championship point, delivering a narrative in a tone of reverie that ends with Ivanisevic’s last sword thrust — a backhand volley — striking the tape and with Agassi landing face down on Centre Court in tears.
“I still remember the smell of the grass,” he said sotto voce.

He also remembers the emotions — still mixed — after that 6-7 (8-10), 6-4, 6-4, 1-6, 6-4 victory.
“As hard a critic as everybody was, I think the thing that was misjudged about me consistently over the years was how much harder of a critic I am of myself,” he said. “Sure I felt the vindication of the people who told me I couldn’t do it or the times I read I couldn’t. I absolutely felt that, but not more than the ghosts that I managed to exorcise in my own head. And so what I had proven to myself was a much greater emotion to me at that moment because of all the failures I felt like I had.”

“The sad part of all of it is that Wimbledon felt more like a relief at that stage of my career than a celebration,” he added, before correcting himself.

“I shouldn’t say that,” he continued. “I wouldn’t say relief trumped it. Relief was a significant component of what I felt, and that is the unfortunate part.”

“Agassi and Ecstasy” read the headlines, in an era when the headlines usually came in print. But there would be more agony ahead for Agassi, even if he had finally won the Grand Slam singles title that had eluded him in three previous, increasingly demoralizing finals.

There were breakups the next year with his girlfriend, Wendi Stewart, and his longtime coach, Nick Bollettieri, who were both in his box for the final, along with Agassi’s older brother, Phillip. There was a career-threatening wrist injury that required surgery, a slide in the rankings and, above all, a persistent rift between Agassi and the sport that had been imposed upon him by his stage father and by his own prodigious talent.

“I felt, ‘O.K., now my life will make sense, because this is a life I’ve never been connected to,”’ he said of his Wimbledon victory. “And in fact, it just raised the stakes. I refer to it as a dirty little secret, because if somebody had told me it, I probably wouldn’t have done it. If somebody had told me that my angst would have only risen with winning it, I would have reconsidered.”

Agassi said that when he called his father after the victory, his father’s first comment was that he had no business losing the fourth set, although his son could hear him tearing up through the phone. Agassi said the post-victory glow was gone for good by the U.S. Open, about two months later, where he lost in the quarterfinals to Jim Courier.
Yet it would be far off the mark to think that Agassi — now 42 and more interested in educating his two children and others for tomorrow than in rehashing yesterday’s matches — in some way regrets winning his lone Wimbledon title.
“I value the trophies by what it took, and what it took out of me, what it took from me, what it took of me,” said Agassi, now married to the former women’s champion Steffi Graf. “Wimbledon is up there with the French Open in 1999. That’s how much it means to me. It’s a reminder, a reminder of what we can overcome if we just refuse to quit.”