Holding Him Answerable Serves No One Any Good

At this point, Andre Agassi is better off being home. Or on an island. Or anywhere but the U.S. Open.

Now that his family’s greatest crisis has become fodder for the New York tabloids, it’s in the best interest of everyone, except those who worry about the television ratings, that Agassi got bounced in the second round Thursday by Arnaud Clement.

Agassi’s sister has breast cancer, his mother was diagnosed with the dreadful illness a month ago, and the weight of these issues is coming down on Agassi with such great force that he can barely move on the tennis court.

There was a time when Agassi practically demanded attention with his neon clothes and bleached-blond hair early in his career. He has been the most popular pitchman in men’s tennis for more than a decade. And he has had a high-profile love life. He married Brooke Shields and now is dating Steffi Graf.

In this, he is experiencing the flip side of fame, with his personal anguish out there for everyone to see and discuss. Agassi seems unwilling and unable to deal with it, which is well within his rights.

He doesn’t have to anymore. Not here, at least, thanks to a 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 loss to the 37th-ranked Clement.

This didn’t look anything like the Agassi we know, the Agassi who holds the No. 1 ranking and was top seeded in this tournament, the Agassi who is the U.S. Open’s defending champion.

His service return, normally the best in the game, was mediocre. He wasn’t ripping winners and feasting on second serves the way he used to. He missed one return so badly that the ball nearly flew into the photographers’ well. At the start of the second set’s second game, Clement served three consecutive aces, with Agassi barely leaning toward the ball each time.

He played as if he were tied to a post.

Agassi said that his focus and fitness were both fine. That’s hard to believe. If this was really the best Agassi is capable of producing, then he might as well hang up the racket right now, because it wouldn’t be fun to watch a player with his accomplishments losing regularly in the second round of Grand Slams to guys who aren’t in the top 30.

What this does raise, however, is the possibility that we might see the premature end of Agassi’s reign. He’s 30 and, realistically, is looking at only two or three more years of top-level tennis. What if he decides to spend one of those years focusing on his family? What if it takes him another year after that to get back in form?

Those are the tennis issues. He has more important concerns, and that’s making even the simple decisions--future Davis Cup participation, for instance--more difficult.

“For me, it’s week to week right now,” Agassi said. “I mean, I’ve got a lot to think about right now, just with the Olympics coming up.”

Not even the trip to Sydney is a sure thing, though.

“The plan has been to go there,” Agassi said. “I’m not going to start popping off right after I have a disappointing match.”

Agassi, facing the media for the first time since he first discussed his family’s illnesses in a CBS interview that aired Tuesday, gave minimal responses whenever his personal situation came up.

When asked how his mother and sister are doing, he said, “Good.”

When asked when he learned about his mother’s diagnosis, he said, “When it happened.”

This is the way it would have gone for every interview session.

Something happens at a major event like the U.S. Open and it’s impossible to escape it. What’s more, everyone remotely connected gets sucked into it.

Monica Seles, whose father died of stomach cancer in May of ‘98, was asked if she could relate to what Agassi is experiencing.

In the other story, Jelena Dokic’s dad, Damir, had a fit over the cost of salmon in the cafeteria, got himself kicked off the grounds of the National Tennis Center for the rest of the U.S. Open, and Jelena had to spend another interview session answering questions about him.

For good measure, Mary Pierce, whose father has been banned from WTA tour events for his abusive behavior, was brought in and asked if she had any advice or suggestions for young Dokic.

When Agassi was asked what the public’s reaction has been, he said, “I don’t know. The same. I haven’t noticed anything.”

It was impossible not to notice the way the fans rose to applaud Agassi when he entered Arthur Ashe Stadium. He has always been a fan favorite around here, but this time there was a little something extra to it. Normally a scrappy underdog playing the way Clement was playing might win some folks over, but the only people cheering for him were a few French kids shouting “Allez, Arnaud!”

The crowd couldn’t pull Agassi through, not even during his belated, ill-fated rally in the third set.

Agassi managed to greet Clement with a smile at the net afterward, and he waved to the crowd and signed a few autographs on his way out of the stadium.

Hard as it is to believe, it’s already time to start summarizing Agassi’s year. He won the Australian Open, but never seemed to be the same after that draining Davis Cup trip to Zimbabwe. He had back problems that were exacerbated by a car crash shortly after Wimbledon and now this short trip to New York.

“I did win one Slam, so that’s good,” Agassi said. “I’ll take one Slam every year for the next 20 years.”

It was his most lighthearted moment.

Nothing, not another Grand Slam or even next year, is guaranteed, a fact Agassi must be acutely aware of right now.

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J.A. Adande can be reached at his e-mail address: j.a.adande@latimes.com.