LOS ANGELES - Andre Agassi opened his final summer hardcourt tennis season
Monday with a 7-6, 6-0 victory over Xavier Malisse in the opening round of the
Countrywide Classic.
Defending champion
Andre Agassi gestures as he answers a question during a news conference at
the Countrywide Classic tennis tournament in Westwood section of Los
Angeles on Monday, July 24, 2006. Agassi opened his final summer hardcourt
tennis season Monday with a 7-6, 6-0 victory over Xavier Malisse in the
opening round of the tournament.[AP] |
The 36-year-old Agassi has announced that he will retire following this
year's U.S. Open.
But in beating Malisse in a match played in 110-degree heat, the eight-time
Grand Slam champion showed that his appearances between now and the Open won't
be merely ceremonial.
"I'm still out there with a competitive spirit," Agassi said. "I'm looking
forward to this summer and in some regards I'm in denial about it being my last
summer out here."
"I'm aware of how life's going to change and I'm out there wanting it to last
as long and as good as possible," he said.
Agassi trailed Malisse 3-1 in the first set, then rallied to force the
tiebreaker and fought off three set points before winning 12-10. The long
tiebreaker and its outcome took more of a toll on the 26-year-old Malisse, of
Belgium, and he offered only token resistance in the second set.
"I was too tired, I think," Malisse said.
Agassi, the No. 5 seed, is the defending champion of this $500,000 event and
has won it four times.
"My commitment was always to do this as long and as hard and as well as
possible," he said. "In some cases, I wasn't sure if my body was going to give
out or my mind or my heart. You wake up one day and maybe you don't quite feel
the same. I didn't know how it was going to go."
"Four years ago is when I was first dealing with these issues physically and
I've managed to hold it off as long as I could," he said.
Earlier in the day, No. 3 seed Fernando Gonzalez of Chile and No. 8 Dmitry
Tursunov of Russia both moved into the second round by winning a pair of
tiebreakers. Gonzalez beat Gilles Muller of Luxembourg, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (5) and
Tursunov defeated Thailand's Danai Udomchoke, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (4).
Muller lost to Agassi in last year's final.