Agassi's aura buys time as game adjusts to new era

Last of America's charismatic heroes likely to play alongside younger generation as long as he is capable of winning Grand Slams

Imagine the scene: a megabuck men's doubles extravaganza in Las Vegas, shortly before Christmas. On one side of the net, with a combined age of 95, are Jimmy Connors and John McEnroe. On the other side of the net, with a combined age of 65, are Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras, handicapped by having to play with one serve instead of two, unless they lose a set. The court announcer primes the protagonists: "Let's get ready to gruuummmbbbllle."

Agassi, 33, is the only one of the quartet still active on the international tour. The oldest-ever world No 1 five weeks ago at the start of the US Open - where the 32-year-old Sampras officially announced his retirement - he lost his position at the head of the game 13 days later to Juan Carlos Ferrero after being defeated by the Spaniard in the semi-finals.

The proposed "Battle of the Ages" in Vegas would be irrelevant if it did not prompt the question of how much longer Agassi is prepared to push himself in serious competition.

He remains the biggest personality in the game, and the last of the American old guard now Sampras and Michael Chang have joined Jim Courier in the real world. Consequently, Agassi is relied upon to buy time for the sport while enthusiasts adjust to a new wave of major champions in the form of Andy Roddick, Roger Federer, Ferrero, and the combative Lleyton Hewitt.

"It's a weird feeling," Agassi says. "You expect to leave the dance with the ones you came with. I'm certainly proud to still be playing this long and at this level. But sometimes you just wish things would never change."

"Sampras's rivalry with Agassi," Connors says, "is what carried United States tennis long after the likes of McEnroe and myself moved on, which, in turn, created the kind of interest in the game that kept it growing. Rivalries like that are needed in this game."

Like the lean, youthful-looking 51-year-old Connors, Agassi's style is an aggressive groundstroke game from the baseline, dependent on a solid serve, a stunning return of serve and boundless energy. Agassi and the left-handed Connors are rated the best returners in the history of the sport.

Connors's Grand Slam career began at the 1970 US Open. Like Agassi, he has eight Grand Slam single titles to his name. Always tenacious, sometimes disgusting, the rumbustious Connors made his farewell Grand Slam appearance, aged 40, at the 1992 US Open, having barnstormed to the semi-finals the year before.

"I remember talking to the great Pancho Gonzales when I was just a boy and he was in is 40s," Connors recounts. "I said, 'What's the first thing that's going on you? Your eyes? You can't see?'

"He says: 'No, my legs won't carry me.'

"I'm a kid at 20 years old. I'm saying: 'That will never happen to me.'

"Guess what? It does. Finally, it doesn't matter how much experience you have, your body just won't carry you."

Sampras said he knew it was time to retire when he no longer had the will to train for Wimbledon. "I feel that way most of the time," Agassi says. "That's not a joke. Most of the time I feel like, 'Today's the day I can't do it.' That to me is the challenge. It always has been. I certainly identify with it. I understand [Pete's] decision to not do it any more. But, you know, my choices are different right now."

Agassi is due to play in this month's Masters Series tournaments in Madrid and Paris en route to the Masters Cup in Houston next month. Tomorrow, his attention will be focused on another spectacular event in Las Vegas, the annual Grand Slam for Children gala he organises in his home city.

"I feel like there are thousands and thousands of children in the inner city of Las Vegas that benefit from the fact that I still am out here trying to be the best at tennis," he says. "They benefit through the money that we raise for the foundation, through the school that's been put up, through the Boys and Girls Club and the Assistance League. We clothe 3,000 children a year plus. There are a lot of great things that have come from it.

"What keeps me going is the fact that I love the sport. Tennis has been great to me. So I feel I like I've got to give everything I have to it so that I can live without regrets."

The consensus is that Agassi will play as long as he is a viable contender for further Grand Slam titles. Asked if suggestions that his time had passed would spur him on, he smiles and says: "Well, that's not going to start now. I mean, that started about seven years ago. My mark has never been any given player, any given tournament. It's always been measuring against myself. When the day comes where I don't feel like I can get out there and play well and have a chance of winning, then hopefully I'll be the first to know."

Connors says he misses the game but has no regrets about his controversial antics on the court "because if I look back and regret one thing, I'd probably regret two or three things, and I just don't have time for that. Especially now. It's too late. It's documented. I took responsibility for it then, I'll take responsibility for it now."

He particularly misses the US Open at New York's Flushing Meadows. "That place made my reputation," he says. "I left DNA out there on that court. I say that with pride."

Old "Jimbo" is also proud that his son, Brett, 24, and daughter, Aubree-Leigh, 18, enjoy watching his great battles when they are re-run on television, particularly during rain delays. "It's fun that my kids see it and see what I've done," he says. "That took an awful lot of energy. Looking back now I'm 51, I must have been crazy to play five hours' worth of tennis and to produce everything else over and above that - the fist pump or whatever you want. That was just added energy sapped from what I needed to produce at tennis. It was crazy.

"There are people, press, whatever, that say that I needed that. No, I didn't need that. I needed the tennis. The tennis was what I was all about - my pride and performance. Everything else went along with it."

Probably the time will come when Agassi's children join him in watching tapes of his old matches and wonder what possessed him - apart from money and notoriety - to appear on court in the garish outfits he wore in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Agassi was asked recently how much it helped to be married to "the best female player in the world," Steffi Graf. "I think it helps being married to the greatest lady in the world," he replied. "That's how I look at it. It's all a function of what kind of support you have around you. That starts at home, starts with your wife, in my case.

"I get a lot of support, partly because she's aware of what goes into what I need to do in order to have a chance at any of these accomplishments, but also because she cares about what I care about. Also those around me, from my coach to my trainer to my friends to those that help make decisions every day that balance my life. All those variables are hugely important. I believe you can do both, but you can't do both if you're compromised. Everybody has to sort of be on the same page. I have that luxury."