Long Match Is Too Much for Connors : Agassi Advances in Open by Outlasting His Older Opponent in Five Sets

As tennis goes, well, it was great theater.

Here was Jimmy Connors, dragging his 37-year-old body around the court, getting sick to his stomach, thinking about quitting but playing on.

“I played on instinct and guts,” Connors said.

Then there was 19-year-old Andre Agassi, bleached hair in disarray, tanking a set, getting away with it and playing on.

“I said, ‘Hey, hang in there,’ ” Agassi said.

The whole thing lasted 3 hours 17 minutes. The only things missing were a curtain and some greasepaint.

Agassi advanced to the U.S. Open semifinals for the second consecutive year with a 6-1, 4-6, 0-6, 6-3, 6-4 decision Thursday night that was also his first five-set victory--and the last, if Connors has anything to do with it.

Connors, who won the second set even though his face was the same color as his tennis shoes, also won the third, 6-0, when Agassi chose not to try.

Agassi lost, 6-0, but not before he walked over toward the stands and told his brother, Phil, and coach, Nick Bollettieri, that he wanted to go five sets.

Such an admission is a serious breach of tennis etiquette, where egos are as deep and profound as a John McEnroe soliloquy. In effect, Agassi was telling Connors that he would give him a set and still win.

Connors, who as a jumbo Jimbo had to lose 15 pounds just to get ready for this tournament, was not amused when he had to leave it. He blamed Agassi.

“For a guy who was 0 for five-set matches and with the kind of year he’s had, he should learn to keep his mouth shut,” Connors said as he walked to his black limo.

He climbed inside, slammed the door and was gone. Agassi, however, is still around.

So, too, is top-seeded Ivan Lendl, who had an answer for everything Tim Mayotte tried. Lendl won, 6-4, 6-0, 6-1, and now gets Agassi in the semifinals.

The Agassi that Lendl will see is still the most exasperating and exciting player of his day. Even Connors thinks so.

Do you see a lot of yourself in Andre, Jimbo?

“No,” Connors said.

Well, Connors is prejudiced. (“There’s nothing like the original article.”) Ask someone else.

Tennis historian Ted Tinling talks about Agassi’s substance: “I think the boy is a little brittle. He’s all frosting and no cake.”

Sure, Agassi gave up in the third set, continuing a habit of tanking a set he doesn’t think he can win to conserve energy for later, but at least he admits it.

“I felt the set was over with,” Agassi said. “I didn’t want to struggle to hold serve and get beat, 6-2, so my mind went.”

Other body parts were bothering Connors. Stricken by waves of nausea early in the second set, he rested on the scoreboard between points and once walked over to where his wife, Patti, was sitting and told her he didn’t think he could finish the match.

Soon, Connors began feeling better. He became the old Connors.

Connors whacked himself in the head with his racket after a miss.

Agassi applauded with his hands on his racket after a lunging volley by Connors.

Connors stuck his face in a courtside camera and said, “What do you think about this, Vitas?” to his buddy, Vitas Gerulaitis, broadcasting on television.

Agassi hitched his pants, oh, a hundred or so times.

Emotions soared Blimp high, the fans were loving it, but sadly, the tennis wasn’t as good as the show.

After 2 hours 34 minutes, it was two sets all. Nobody hits forehands from the baseline harder than Agassi, who won the first set in 36 minutes. He aced Connors on a second serve to finish the fourth.

By then, Connors was feeling pretty run down. Agassi went up two breaks in the fifth set but wasn’t taking anything for granted.

Agassi served for the match at 5-2 and and won exactly one point. Connors held at 5-3 at love. Once again, Agassi served for the match, this time at 5-4.

Connors missed a backhand volley by two inches at 30-15, and Agassi held two match points. He blew the first one when he blasted a backhand pass wide. But Agassi ended it on the next point. He hit a slice forehand drop shot that a charging Connors couldn’t control, only lifting it across the baseline.

All that was left in this drama were the exits. Connors made his first, stopping to acknowledge a standing ovation with a nice full-turn and a wave.

Then Agassi left. A towel in one hand and a paper cup in the other, Agassi waved to modest applause.

Connors said he was sorry he lost, happy he put up a fight and certain he missed a good chance to beat Agassi in the fifth set.

“He was gagging,” Connors said.

When Agassi played Connors for the first time and beat him in last year’s Open, he said he thought he would have won more easily.

“Not to say I never saw him before, but I never sat down to see him play,” Agassi said. “All I knew was that he was a 36-year-old. I guess that was a little naive on my part.”