Retiring Agassi Blazes a Trail Out of Wimbledon

There went Andre Agassi, elderly champion, American original, the last of the 1990s cowboys, shooed from his last Wimbledon by the kind of rapacious big-haired youth he once epitomized.

So he stood alone one last time in the sun on Centre Court, bowed to all four adoring quadrants, blew two-handed kisses, hoisted his big bag of gear, stopped to sign some autographs, and disappeared for good behind the green wall.

He said he hoped he’d left an imprint.

If Agassi has blazed trails in a 20-year career set to end at the U.S. Open, a wild Saturday at Wimbledon could pile on further evidence. For no sooner had Agassi exited with a 7-6 (5), 6-2, 6-4 loss to French Open champion Rafael Nadal than a queue of other Americans followed him right on out of the third round.

Defending champion Venus Williams finished two rounds of fiddling with danger by tempting it too much, succumbing on the fourth match point against 29th-ranked Serbian Jelena Jankovic in a 7-6 (8), 4-6, 6-4 loss that belied Williams’ five trips to the finals this decade.

Then, near dusk, third-seeded Andy Roddick sustained his ebb of 2006 with a 7-6 (4), 6-4, 6-4 loss to Andy Murray, the 19-year-old Scot ranked 44th and fancied as Britain’s next hope for ending its 70-year men’s singles drought.

By the time they tallied up the points and printed out the fourth-round draws for the second week, only one of the 24 Americans (14 women, 10 men) remained, and that would be Shenay Perry, the 21-year-old daughter of a former Washington, D.C., firefighter, ranked No. 62.

If you had that on an English wagering slip, early retirement might seem plausible.

The 23 exited as if this were French clay, prompting a grouchy Roddick to say, “I think it is a lot more surprising-slash-disappointing when it is here, a place that we’ve all had a lot of success.”

Still, even as Americans foundered, Wimbledon spent the afternoon cheering an American. Standing ovations greeted a certain 36-year-old Las Vegan at every possible turn during his third-round pizazz festival with Nadal, the clay-court whiz whose embryonic grass game found its finest two hours.

Even England’s Lawn Tennis Writers presented him with a glass jug.

“It’s been a privilege to be out there again for one last time,” Agassi said after his first Wimbledon since 2003. “I’ll look back at this as one of my most memorable experiences. To say goodbye, for me, this means as much as winning.”

Even the guy who won, and won emphatically, kept his fist-pumps subdued.

“Today I play my best match, but is not my day for celebration, no?” Nadal said. “Is his day.”

His day had come 19 years after his day at Wimbledon in 1987, when Agassi stayed only one day in losing to Henri Leconte in the first round.

He stayed away rebelliously for three years after that, but by Saturday he had accrued 58 more Wimbledon matches, 13 more appearances, one title in 1992, a finalist appearance in 1999, three other semifinal berths and something very much resembling wisdom.

Nineteen years post-Leconte, he terms it “a real humbling experience to be driving in a Wimbledon transport car” and come upon people sleeping on sidewalks just hoping to glimpse the grass of some far-flung court.

“I think this was a place that first taught me to respect the sport,” Agassi said, “really, I mean, you know, to really appreciate the opportunity and privilege it is to play a game for a living, to play tennis. People work five days a week to play on the weekend.

“We get to call it a job, you know.”

A job it was, handling Nadal on the last day. The Spaniard from the island of Mallorca never faced so much as a break point or a deuce in service games. He seemed to materialize constantly at the ball.

“His movement is out of this world,” Agassi said.

A 5-2 Agassi lead in the first-set tiebreaker briskly became a 7-5 loss, especially when Nadal fetched an apparent Agassi winner and redirected it into his own on a spectacular point to go up, 6-5.

In Nadal, barely more than half Agassi’s age, Agassi saw a bit of himself from the single-minded days, even as his wife, Steffi Graf, watched from the Royal Box among other past champions.

“You know, when I first came on the scene, I was the first person to hit the ball big off both wings, take the ball early and give it a good ride,” Agassi said. “And as I look back, I would love to think I was part of that evolution of the game, where I helped the game and those around me get better.”

The evidence took the form of the next generation, Nadal’s height and famous muscles making Agassi look like a relic, even if a relic whose last shot at Wimbledon did go in, and did cause a netted Nadal forehand on double-match point.

On the next match point, as the game’s most famed returner shuffled his feet for one last serve, and a Nadal ace smacked the doubles line, it seemed somebody hit the mute button on Centre Court.

But only briefly.