Tuesday, March 14, 2006
WATCHING AGASSI'S HISSY-FIT VICTORY over Rockville, Md.'s own Paul Goldstein and listening to the commentators lament Goldstein's weakness in the face of Agassi's celebrity, I had to think:
Everybody's right.
Agassi had gone off the boil, in Fred Stolle terms, and was headed for defeat when it started raining in Indian Wells. It wasn't raining hard, but it was definitely raining. Ullrich kept testing the court and kept saying it wasn't even remotely slippery. Agassi, who had already received a warning and a point penalty for an obscenity and a very uncharacteristic racket-smash, was an infraction away from default, so it was in very clean language that he told Ullrich to go frig himself.
Agassi was finally persuaded to play, and he proceeded to give away a bunch of points with impatient play against the nothing-but-patient Goldstein. I had said at the outset that, no matter how rusty Agassi was, his pride would not let him, the tennis equivalent of the homecoming king, lose to Goldstein, the tennis equivalent of the audiovisual geek.
Andre seemed to remember this, eventually, and went on a tear of winners and near-winners. At one point it had occurred to me, "Wouldn't it be something if Goldstein fell and hurt himself?" -- and sure enough, Goldstein fell. He didn't hurt himself, but he sure did give Agassi a reason to stop hitting winners and start whining again. This was when things went way wrong, to Tennis Channel commentators John Barrett and "Doug" (Flach? Spreen? I never heard him identified, and I'm still trying to think of what other Dougs there are in tennis). Agassi pulled Goldstein into the argument, and Paul said he wouldn't mind waiting a bit if the rain was "in the back or our minds."
Then came the most hilarious umpire announcement ever. Ullrich: "Ladies and gentlemen, because rain is the in the back of the players' minds, play is suspended."
The players stayed on the court, and there was more discussion, and finally Agassi agreed to play if Goldstein said the rain didn't cause his fall. Goldstein said the rain didn't cause his fall, and play resumed. Goldstein scarcely won another point, and Barrett and "Doug" attributed this to Agassi's mind games.
They're no doubt right that Goldstein, who admitted afterward that he agreed to the stoppage out of respect for Agassi, lost his mental edge. And they're no doubt right that Agassi milked the situation.
What they never mentioned, however, is how it's pretty much gospel that, on a hard court, not a single point is played if anyone is even thinking about rain. I mean, really. How many times have we heard during the French Open that, while hard-court matches stop immediately in a drizzle, you can play on and on on the clay. And it's not as though Agassi isn't a guy who could stand to lose a whole lot with a patch of bad footing, given his back and leg and hip difficulties. Yes, he was a baby. Yes, in a sense he stole the match. But he was right.
Everybody's right.
Agassi had gone off the boil, in Fred Stolle terms, and was headed for defeat when it started raining in Indian Wells. It wasn't raining hard, but it was definitely raining. Ullrich kept testing the court and kept saying it wasn't even remotely slippery. Agassi, who had already received a warning and a point penalty for an obscenity and a very uncharacteristic racket-smash, was an infraction away from default, so it was in very clean language that he told Ullrich to go frig himself.
Agassi was finally persuaded to play, and he proceeded to give away a bunch of points with impatient play against the nothing-but-patient Goldstein. I had said at the outset that, no matter how rusty Agassi was, his pride would not let him, the tennis equivalent of the homecoming king, lose to Goldstein, the tennis equivalent of the audiovisual geek.
Andre seemed to remember this, eventually, and went on a tear of winners and near-winners. At one point it had occurred to me, "Wouldn't it be something if Goldstein fell and hurt himself?" -- and sure enough, Goldstein fell. He didn't hurt himself, but he sure did give Agassi a reason to stop hitting winners and start whining again. This was when things went way wrong, to Tennis Channel commentators John Barrett and "Doug" (Flach? Spreen? I never heard him identified, and I'm still trying to think of what other Dougs there are in tennis). Agassi pulled Goldstein into the argument, and Paul said he wouldn't mind waiting a bit if the rain was "in the back or our minds."
Then came the most hilarious umpire announcement ever. Ullrich: "Ladies and gentlemen, because rain is the in the back of the players' minds, play is suspended."
The players stayed on the court, and there was more discussion, and finally Agassi agreed to play if Goldstein said the rain didn't cause his fall. Goldstein said the rain didn't cause his fall, and play resumed. Goldstein scarcely won another point, and Barrett and "Doug" attributed this to Agassi's mind games.
They're no doubt right that Goldstein, who admitted afterward that he agreed to the stoppage out of respect for Agassi, lost his mental edge. And they're no doubt right that Agassi milked the situation.
What they never mentioned, however, is how it's pretty much gospel that, on a hard court, not a single point is played if anyone is even thinking about rain. I mean, really. How many times have we heard during the French Open that, while hard-court matches stop immediately in a drizzle, you can play on and on on the clay. And it's not as though Agassi isn't a guy who could stand to lose a whole lot with a patch of bad footing, given his back and leg and hip difficulties. Yes, he was a baby. Yes, in a sense he stole the match. But he was right.
