Agassi takes the next step in hunt for a Grand Slam

PARIS -- At 33, Andre Agassi is tennis' elder statesman, offering guidance, dispensing opinions, lending perspective. And winning tournaments.

When matches start Monday at the French Open, he'll be the only man who has a shot at a Grand Slam this year, thanks to his Australian Open victory, one of three titles he's gathered while rolling to a 23-2 match record.

Agassi even had a brief stay at No. 1, making him the oldest player ever to top the ATP Tour rankings.

But don't go looking for a boastful claim about his chances at Roland Garros. He's much too wise for that.

"I'm never confident. I'm not that sort of guy," Agassi said. "I have to go out and earn it every day."

That's why he was out there under the midday sun Friday, swatting balls over the net on Court 1 while coach Darren Cahill looked on. Agassi constructs points brilliantly and his return is the object of envy, but what keeps him among the best in the game more than anything is his dedication to fitness and practice.

That allows him to hang in there when a match becomes an endurance contest. It also allows him to recover quickly.

Just one example: At Key Biscayne, Fla., in March, Agassi had to play on three consecutive days because of rain delays. He won all three matches, defeating a well-rested Carlos Moya in the final.

Being in prime shape can give Agassi an edge on clay courts, where points tend to be longer, and particularly in Grand Slam events, where men's matches are best-of-five-sets and it takes seven matches to win a title because of larger fields.

He is seeded second at Roland Garros, behind Lleyton Hewitt (the reigning Wimbledon champion), and ahead of No. 3 Juan Carlos Ferrero (the runner-up last year), No. 4 Carlos Moya (the 1998 champion) and No. 5 Roger Federer.

Agassi has won eight major championships, including the 1999 French Open. With one title at Wimbledon, two at the U.S. Open and four at the Australian Open, he already is just the fifth player in history with a career Grand Slam (Fred Perry, Don Budge, Roy Emerson and Rod Laver are the others).

"What Andre has done the past few years has been phenomenal," 1989 French Open champion Michael Chang said. "He's playing at that level consistently."

Well, mostly.

In his first match back at No. 1, Agassi went down to a surprising first-round defeat against David Ferrer at the Italian Open. He then pulled out of the clay-court tournament in Hamburg, meaning he'll have played a total of one match in the month preceding the French Open.

Still, Cahill, said that might not be such a bad thing: It gave the ol' guy a chance to rest his legs, frankly.

"He's fresh, and he's ready, and he's healthy," Cahill said. "Physically, this is a brutal tournament to play."