A Crucial Point

Andre Agassi has been injured before, and, though it has been almost eight years, he has gone through coaching changes. Usually, these twin developments would stand alone, evaluated on their own merit.

This is no longer the case. With his 32nd birthday a couple of months away, the most recent pieces of information about Agassi in the last month--a wrist injury keeping him out of the Australian Open and a break with longtime coach Brad Gilbert--have been grouped together:

A plus B equals career in crisis.

Together, the injury and coaching change have raised questions about his future, generating legitimate scrutiny. But these things can gather momentum, as Pete Sampras will attest, worrying sponsors and tournament directors. A Sampras quote at Wimbledon in 2001, pulled out of context, had him dealing with the issue of retirement for months.

Agassi, as always, is his best spokesman, stepping in front of the rolling boulder, so to speak. In an interview, he spelled out his current rehabilitation regime, and his future plans, which include the addition of a new coach.

He has been speaking with hand surgeon Leonard Gordon almost daily, having first put the wrist in a splint and rehabilitating it to decrease the pain and inflammation. Monday, he took the next step, starting a strengthening program, engaging in light hitting for the first time since the injury.

And instead of winding down, Agassi is looking ahead, searching for Gilbert’s replacement. His focus is on one candidate, Australian Darren Cahill, and Agassi said, “There’s a strong likelihood it will happen.”

Agassi, who married Steffi Graf and became a father in October, addressed the questions about his continued commitment in the aftermath of his injury. He also allowed his doctor to be interviewed, a rare concession from a private individual.

“I’m still very intent on maximizing whatever I have left,” Agassi told The Times in a telephone interview from his home in Las Vegas. “And I do believe I have a lot left. I believe that with all my heart. And this step is a crucial step for me because it’s an important time.”

Gordon said he is treating Agassi’s inflamed wrist with “conservative measures” to avoid surgery, which he had in 1993.

“It’s really hard to prognosticate as far as time is concerned,” said Gordon, who noted that the injury to the lining of the tendons on the back of Agassi’s wrist is not uncommon but occurred in an unusual place.

“Different people heal at different rates. It would be nice to say, specifically two weeks, three weeks or four weeks. One has to be guarded as far as giving a definite time. With that being said, in the next few weeks, we should see some additional healing. He may well be back in a couple of weeks. We pretty much got rid of the pain. We have to get back to him really using it, hitting a ball at over 100 miles an hour for several hours.”

Agassi’s next scheduled event is a tournament in San Jose, which starts Feb. 25. Realistically, he can’t make a coaching decision before he is cleared to play. But he is restless and wants to move quickly.

“I have to. I have no choice,” he said. “I don’t have the luxury of the next 20 years. What I need to do, I need to do quick. I need to not waste time, get healthy and get directed and get focused. It’s not easy though, because at the same time, I’m spending a good portion of the day trying to rehabilitate my situation and spending the rest of my day sitting around wishing I could be out there hitting balls.”

The Gilbert decision, mystifying from afar, unfolded quickly last week. Gilbert and Agassi had been together since 1994, winning six Grand Slam titles and an Olympic gold medal in 1996. They got together quickly and parted swiftly, and amicably, both said.

“Life goes on,” Gilbert said. “We had a great run. I kind of came in like that and I kind of leave like that, which is kind of cool, it wasn’t any long, drawn-out thing. We didn’t wrangle over it for months. The thing that’s great is that we didn’t go stale.”

Said Agassi: “It was no calculated choice of road, I assure you.”

Agassi said it is difficult to picture what it will be like without Gilbert, describing the decision as a “timing” issue, asserting that they didn’t want to get too comfortable.

“He’s looking toward the next 20 years and I’m looking toward the next few,” Agassi said. “The way we went about it and how it came about is more a reflection of how we care about each other and look out for each other.”

Cahill played in Gilbert’s era, reaching the U.S. Open semifinals in 1988. Agassi played Cahill twice in his career, and recalled the specific details. The highly regarded Australian became available after splitting with Lleyton Hewitt in December after Hewitt won the U.S. Open and finished the season ranked No. 1. The reason for their break is still largely unknown.

“I’ve appreciated his work from afar,” Agassi said. “I’ve made a lot of assumptions about his abilities, and some of them, I’ve seen first-hand. It’s interesting. I really hope things can develop there because I see a lot in him as a coach and hopefully he can feel there’s a lot to coach.”

For Agassi, this is a critical juncture, balancing his health, his profession and family life. His thrill at being a new father is never far from the surface. In fact, the conversation started with the end of son Jaden Gil’s feeding.

“He has this little move after he eats where his arms are straight up and he sticks his butt out and it looks like he’s Superboy flying or something,” Agassi said. “There’s a line in a song that I enjoy: ‘Drunk like a baby on his mother’s milk.’ Now I finally know what that’s referring to. He looks like the happiest thing in the world when he gets done eating.

“I can only speak to what it feels like in 31/2 months and it’s amazing and it gets better by the day.”