Agassi finds perspective in defeat at Wimbledon

The question struck Andre Agassi as odd, if not impertinent.

Did he consider, as he walked off the court Monday after his fourth-round loss to Mark Philippoussis, whether he would ever be back at Wimbledon?

"Why wouldn't I be back?" he shot back. "I'm still a tennis player. This is the place to be. ... My plan is to be back here next year."

So there were no sentimental farewells, no blown kisses or teary looks at the cheering crowd. He swallowed this five-set loss hard and moved on. There will be other chances at Grand Slam titles, no matter what the calendar or skeptics say.

Agassi's age, 33, had nothing to do with his five-set defeat. He didn't run out of energy, didn't lose a step in quickness. Like his loss to Pete Sampras in last year's U.S. Open final, he simply came up a tad short on a day of monster serves by Philippoussis, who tied Goran Ivanisevic's Wimbledon record with 46 aces.

"It's quite the same animal at work," Agassi said. "You know, it's somebody who's willing to push the boundaries of what they can get away with out there, and coming up with it. The only sort of question I have to ask myself and answer is, 'Am I making him do something special, or am I letting him get away with something?"'

Agassi answered that question by giving full credit to Philippoussis.

Even with the best returns in the business, Agassi was helpless against serves that were consistently 126-134 mph and nicking the lines. The 6-foot-4 Philippoussis looks robotic, cranking up his arm as if in slow motion, but the thudding sound of the ball off his racket is as distinctive as a homer heading for the bay off Barry Bonds' bat.

When defending champion and top-seeded Lleyton Hewitt lost on opening day last week, the No. 2 Agassi became the favorite to win Wimbledon. It didn't matter how old he was, that his only other victory here came in 1992, and that no other player since Bill Tilden had gone so long between Wimbledon wins.

All that mattered was that Agassi was still fitter than almost everyone in the game, still had all his incredible skills and reflexes, and still had the hunger. Nothing about this 6-3, 2-6, 6-7 (4), 6-3, 6-4 loss changed any of that.

Maybe Philippoussis just got fed up with losing to Agassi, who had beaten him the last six times they played. Healthy again after three knee operations over a 14-month period in 2000-01, Philippoussis refused to fold after losing the third-set tiebreaker. Instead, the Australian opened the fourth set with three aces while holding at love, then pushed Agassi to six break points before drilling a backhand close to the baseline that Agassi sent long and wide.

That lost service game at 2-0 felt like a lost set, considering the way Philippoussis was serving. Yet Agassi carved out an opportunity to come back when he had Philippoussis at love-40 in the seventh game. There were plenty of other days when Philippoussis might have caved in there, but this time he clicked off three service winners and a pair of aces to hold for a 5-2 lead. Four more aces in his next service game sent the match into a fifth set.

They had started under dark clouds, stopped after six minutes, waited out a rain delay for more than an hour, saw the sun come out, and now were in the early evening, the sky still bright.

The crowd was decidedly on Agassi's side, though there were cheers for both players, with the fans in awe of Philippoussis' power and Agassi's resolve.

"C'mon, Big Man," one fan called out to boost the Australian early on.

"C'mon, Little Man," an Agassi fan responded.

And now in the final set, the big man was having it his way. He broke Agassi for a 4-3 lead, then stretched his legs and fairly skipped to the baseline to serve while Agassi took mincing, pigeon-toed steps and pounded the strings of his racket with his fist on the way to receiving.

Agassi had his chances again, pushing Philippoussis to two break points, but couldn't cash in on either one. A service winner at 128 mph, and two aces at 129 and 128 gave Philippoussis a 5-3 lead. There would be no more drama. Philippoussis closed out the match the next time he served.

If there was little regret in Agassi's voice on a day when he felt he could have done no better, there was yet a sense of the years going by and his chances of winning more Grand Slam titles dwindling. Agassi has eight majors and more money than he'll ever need. He and wife Steffi Graf have one son and another baby on the way. He could easily walk away from the game, but he's just not quite ready to call it quits.

After winning the Australian Open in January, he said the victories get sweeter and sweeter. The defeats, he said now, get more disappointing, though they don't sting as long as they once did because he has a family to return to.

"If something special happened all the time," he said with a mature man's perspective, "it wouldn't be so special."

Steve Wilstein is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press.