!Andre This is just a quick little bonus post, coming off the press conference set-up by Longines to (among other things) help raise money for Andre Agassi and Stefanie Graf's pet charities (For Steffi, Children for Tomorrow and the Andre Agassi Foundation).
Both of them, by the way, looked great, Steffi perhaps even more-so than Andre - perhaps because we've only had Steffi in very small doses since she left the game looking stressed, tired, bruised, and not entirely happy. Anyway: Here's Andre on the career Grand Slam he earned here exactly 10 years ago, what it meant to him - and what he's looking for tomorrow:
"It changed my career, and as a result it changed my life. It was probably the most profound moment I ever had on a court, because it was about getting over obstacles and self-doubts I had about winning here.
"Tomorrow, we've got a chance to see history, and Roger having been the second-best best clay-courter in the last five years, earning a spot in the final three times in a row, he deserves this more than I did. It seems a privilege to be able to see history made tomorrow maybe. In some ways it almost feels like destiny. It's going to be exciting.
"To win on all four surfaces, especially in one year, which Roger had an opportunity to do a few times, is probably one of the greatest achievements in sports. To do it in your career is an achievement I'm so proud of - every surface, every condition, demands something different, and also rewards you differently, from the physical challenges to the mental challenges. . . it's highlighted by the fact that it doesn't happen very often.
"I'm pulling for Roger tomorrow, in many respects he deserves it. If it wasn't for one freak of nature from Mallorca, he would have won here a handful of times. He's extraordinarily talented - talk about grace on the court, watching him on the court something special to see. If he does it tomorrow, he'll know for rest of his life what an accomplishment it is.
"For me, the great reward for getting that career Slam is that I have no more regrets. One could argue that I wasted a lot of opportunity in the length of my career with my struggles and dramas, but that one day - winning in Paris - allowed me not to have regrets, not to feel that I had left something undone."
And I ought to add that Andre stopped the translator when he was discussing to point out that where he comes from, "freak of nature" is a term of flattery.
-- Pete
PS - Remember that the Crisis Center thread below is the place to chit-chat about and call today 's match.