Retiring with grace and aplomb

An athlete’s retirement is often a time of sadness and honoring. Such was the case with tennis star Andre Agassi who retired on Sept. 3, 2006 at the 2006 US Open. The career of the 36-year-old Las Vegas-born Agassi came to an end when he bowed to the 122nd ranked and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) men’s singles tennis champion Benjamin Becker of Germany, 7-5, 6-7, 6-4, 7-5, in the third round.

With tears welling in his eyes, Agassi bade the appreciative audience goodbye saying they were his inspiration and that he stood upon their shoulders. In what could stand as one of the most poignant farewell speeches in sports history, Agassi said, "The scoreboard says I lost today, but what the scoreboard doesn’t say is what it is I have found. Over the last 21 years I have found loyalty; you have pulled for me on the courts and also in life. I have found inspiration. You have willed me to succeed, sometimes even in my lowest moments. And I have found generosity. You have given me your shoulders to stand on to reach for my dreams; dreams I could never have reached without you. Over the last 21 years I have found you and I will take you and the memory of you with me for the rest of my life."

Agassi told the US Open post-match press conference that when he returned to the locker room, he received a standing ovation from his fellow athletes: "They were all standing, applauding me. I tell you the greatest applause that any person will receive in their life is that which comes from their peers. It’s not like we’re a company who’s working together to accomplish something. We’re people that succeed, in some cases, at the demise of the other. To have them applaud you is the ultimate compliment."

At the end of his career, Agassi pocketed a total of $31 million, winning a total of 60 titles and achieving number one position on April 10, 1995. Born on April 29, 1970, the 5’11", 177-pound, right-handed Agassi, had a career singles record of 870-273. His Grand Slam record includes four Australian Open titles (1995, 2000, 2001 and 2003); French Open (1999); Wimbledon (1992); and US Open (1994, 1999). According to various internet sources, Agassi is one of only five players to have won all four Grand Slam singles events during his career. He is also the only player in the open era to have won the Tennis Masters Cup, to have been part of the Davis Cup winning team, and to have won an Olympic gold medal.

Although most of Agassi’s contemporaries had already retired long before he called it quits (including his wife Steffi Graf on the women’s side of the professional circuit), it is said that sciatica, caused by degenerative disc disease hastened his departure.

Prior to saying goodbye at the US Open, Agassi took part in the 2006 Wimbledon championship and announced before the tournament that the All England club championship would be his last. He launched his Wimbledon campaign with victories over Boris Pashanski and Andreas Seppi. Agassi, however, fell in straight sets (7-6, 6-2, 6-4) to number two seed Rafael Nadal in the third round.

At the end of the match, Agassi was invited to join Nadal in a rare courtside BBC interview (usually reserved for the winner) with former player Sue Barker. Fighting back tears, Agassi said, "I’ll never be able to repay you for how you’ve embraced me over the years, and I thank you for that."

At the US Open, Agassi won his first match by defeating 77th ranked Romanian Andrei Pavel (6-7-, 7-6, 7-6, 6-2). Internet reports state that the day after his victory over Pavel, Agassi revealed that he could hardly stand an hour after his first round match due to recurring back pain from an inflamed sciatic nerve. He went to the hospital and was given a painful injection of cortisone with a seven-inch needle deep into his back to dull the pain in advance of his second round match. That injection was one of about eight to 10 he had had over the last four years.

In his second round match, Agassi faced eighth seed Marcos Baghdatis, a legend in his country Cyprus. Baghdatis had appeared in the 2006 Australian Open and a 2006 Wimbledon semifinal. In short, he was no pushover.

Despite numerous injuries that required medical timeouts during the match, Baghdatis, extended Agassi to five sets before going down in the three-hour, 48-minute match, 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 5-7, 7-5. After the match Agassi again experienced excruciating back pains necessitating another injection of anti-inflammatory medicine.

Then came the match with Becker and the rest is history. Agassi who is of Armenian-Iranian, Assyrian and French ancestry is expected to devote much of his retirement to the Andre Agassi Charitable Foundation which has raised over $60 million for at-risk children in Southern Nevada.

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A good friend, Jesse Paredes, an Ateneo alumnus, called to say that the Veloso twins from Cebu, Mario and Freddie, were the first Filipinos to play in a Division I school in the United States, and not Japeth Aguilar as reported by several newspapers and at least one TV station. Paredes says that the Velosos played for the University of San Francisco Dons together with a player called Bill Russell.

In the Philippines, the Velosos suited up for Philippine Airlines in the defunct Manila Industrial and Commercial Athletic Association (MICAA). Mario was once councilor of Cebu while Freddie was a top executive of Filoil (Filipinas Oil), forerunner of the Philippine National Oil Corp. (PNOC). Freddie married the former Maida Tizon, high school class of 1954 at St. There’s College. Tony Aldeguer has volunteered to do more research on the Velosos.

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Former Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) chairman Perry Mequi says that it is ironic that a foreign sports hall of fame has honored bowler Paeng Nepomuceno while the Philippines still has to put up such a hall of fame. Setting up the Philippine Hall of Fame was one of the projects I left behind at the PSC. There is, by the way, a bill in the House of Representatives authored principally by Cong. Eddie Gullas of Cebu that calls for the creation of such sports hall of fame.