Nadal Almost Misses Agassi Matchup

Rafael Nadal, the exuberant Spaniard who will smile, frown, grimace and giggle all during one point, found himself down by two sets at Wimbledon on Thursday against an American who had gathered all the good wishes and cheers from an enthusiastic crowd.

So Nadal, 20, who is the most accomplished clay-court player in the world but who still lets his feet slide away on the grass, figures he gave himself good preparation for what is coming at him Saturday.

Nadal, seeded No. 2, overcame a two-set deficit for only the second time in his career to beat Robert Kendrick, 6-7 (4), 3-6, 7-6 (2), 7-5, 6-4, in a second-round match. Kendrick, a 26-year-old qualifier from Fresno, was near tears during the fifth set.

And for Nadal, who was two points from defeat in the fourth set, he must now play Andre Agassi, 36, who announced he will be retiring after the U.S. Open in September. Agassi, after limping through the first round, ran easily during his 6-4, 7-6 (2), 6-4 win over 22-year-old Italian Andrea Seppi.

Afterward, Agassi said he worries most about Nadal’s light way of moving on the court. “He can cover so much ground, you know? He’s very aggressive,” Agassi said, “but he’s aggressive with considerable margin because he doesn’t have to end the point. His movement is probably his greatest asset.”

Yet for the first part of his match against Kendrick, Nadal was running but without much purpose. Kendrick, who has spent most of his career playing on the lower-tier challengers circuit and last winter needed wrist surgery, was leaving Nadal stuck in the grass by serving 28 aces and following up other serves with big forehands.

It was a kind of tennis that Kendrick, who spent two years at Washington and another at Pepperdine, said he was afraid he would never be able to produce again.

“Last December,” Kendrick said, “when I was weighing about 207 pounds after surgery and riding the bike just wasn’t enough I thought about quitting.”

Said Nadal: “He was serving unbelievable. I had to play with a very good attitude all the time or I could make it very tough.”

As Kendrick pushed Nadal around the court, the Spaniard had words with linesmen and the chair umpire. He started loudly making his own “out” calls and said later, “I don’t know what’s happening in the last months with the referees. It is strange because they seem to put a lot of pressure on me.”

The more Nadal protested, the more the crowd got behind Kendrick, who missed an easy backhand volley in the third-set tiebreaker that would have given him match point.

Nadal said he understands what he will face from the crowd Saturday. “Is Andre’s last Wimbledon,” he said. “I hope I gonna have more. So is normal, no? But I know that and is better if you know.”

Agassi said his sore back and hip felt better after Thursday’s second-round match than they did during his first-round match.

“Today is a great sign for me,” he said. “The game slowed down, I was turning. So if I’m doing that well, then it gives me a chance to execute what I can do.”

Calling Nadal “a great competitor,” Agassi said what he fears most from his third-round opponent is that “Once he gets hold of a point he doesn’t let go. Once he gets on top of a point he squeezes it every time.”

Nadal and Agassi have faced each other once -- last summer on hard courts in Montreal. Nadal won, 6-3, 4-6, 6-2, in the championship match.

Andy Roddick, a two-time finalist here who considers Agassi a mentor, said those that give the older man little chance are making a mistake.

Roddick mentioned that Agassi made it to the U.S. Open final last year, posting three consecutive five-set wins before losing to Roger Federer.

“If you would have said going in he was going to do that, you probably would have said no,” Roddick said. “If there is a surface where Andre can dictate play, it’s going to be on something like this.

“If you’re asking me if I think Andre has a shot in this, I definitely think he does.”