If Not For Agassi…

What more can be said about Andre Agassi, the American tennis legend who finally called it quits after his third-round loss in the U.S. Open? Quite frankly, I don't think there's anything more I can say that would do justice to Agassi's unprecedented career both on and off the court.

But perhaps that is the way Agassi wants it to be. After a whirlwind two months that culminated with more New York pomp and circumstance than even Agassi himself could handle, he is no doubt ready to retire to the peace and quiet of his family. He went through enough drama in Flushing Meadows to last him a lifetime. He neither needs nor wants any more make-do about him.

So I will oblige and refrain from discussing him. I won't even mention his name again until the very end of this article. In fact, I'll pretend the guy never even existed.

The result of such imagination is what follows. (Keep in mind when reading that the true facts and statistics are altered to fit the scenario in which Agassi never was a tennis player).

A colossal changing of the guard in American tennis took place in the late 1980s and early '90s as aging veterans John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors made way for a quartet of upstarts. The group included Pete Sampras, Jim Courier, and Michael Chang, all of whom turned pro in 1988, and Todd Martin, who joined the professional ranks in 1990. The passing of the torch was no better symbolized than in 1991 on the United States National Tennis Center's Louis Armstrong Stadium, where Courier defeated the 39-year-old Connors after the veteran's absolutely magical run to the semifinals.

Courier was the most outlandish of the bunch, as Sampras, Chang, and Martin generally maneuvered around the spotlight and let their play do all the talking. Courier, on the other hand, was never afraid to speak his mind or to wear the unconventional outfit or to embrace the unconventional lifestyle. His personality led to a famous partnership with the Canon "Rebel" camera, whose "image is everything" slogan became Courier's mantra, as well. Of course, things did not exactly take off for either party, as Courier's career evaporated quickly after his last appearance in a Grand Slam final at Wimbledon in 1993.

Of course, American tennis did not begin and end with Courier. The other three Americans were no slouches, either.

Martin reached his first Grand Slam final at the U.S. Open in 1994, where he fell to first-time major champion Michael Stich. With a second Grand Slam victory (Stich won Wimbledon in 1991), the lanky German secured his place in tennis history as something more than just a one-hit wonder.

Martin, however, made it back to America's grandest tennis stage in 1999, where he faced Russia's Yevgeny Kafelnikov in the championship. At 29 years of age, Martin capitalized on what was his last real chance to go down in the history books as a Grand Slam champion. The moment was especially thrilling for the hometown crowd, for it was then and there that Martin became the last of the vaunted foursome to win a major.

The group's efforts — as well as more recent travails — in the Davis Cup, however, have given the Americans almost nothing to write home about. The United States has won the cup only once since 1982, as Sampras and company finally attained patriotic glory in 1995 after several disappointing years marked by squandered opportunities. In the 1990 Davis Cup final, Australia's Richard Fromberg and Darren Cahill steamrolled through an American team led by Michael Chang and Brad Gilbert.

Yes, that's the same Darren Cahill who has been coaching a guy by the name of Federer for the last three years in what is inarguably the most successful player-coach relationship on the current tour and one that has debatably eclipsed Sampras/Tom Gullikson standards.

Anyway, the United States seemed poised to make a deep run in the 1992 Davis Cup, but their dreams were abruptly shattered in the second round by an unheralded Czechoslovakian squad. Up 2-1 heading into the fourth singles rubber, Petr Korda stunned Pete Sampras 6-4, 6-3, 2-6, 6-3 to clinch the upset victory for the Czechs.

Such blemishes are few and far between on Sampras's singles resume, without question the most impressive curriculum vitae in the history of men's tennis. Although Roger Federer recently recorded his ninth Grand Slam title, he still has quite a ways to go before eclipsing Sampras's incredible mark of 16 major triumphs.

In addition to his record seven Wimbledon titles and five U.S. Open trophies, Sampras also excelled Down Under despite the Aussie Open's slower rebound ace surface that hindered Pistol Pete's power serve. Sampras finished his career with four Australian Open championships.

One of those titles, his second in Australia, came in 1995, when Sampras successfully defended his victory of just one year prior. In the finals, Sampras erased fellow American Aaron Krickstein, who was playing in his first — and only — Grand Slam final. After a third Aussie Open victory in 1997, Sampras won his fourth and final championship in Rod Laver Arena in 2000, at the expense of Kafelnikov.

While it was no secret that the red clay of Roland Garros tormented Sampras like no other surface in the world, most tennis fans assumed Sampras would eventually win a French Open after he reached the semifinals all the way back in 1992, just as his career was blossoming. Nonetheless, America's greatest tennis player of all time would never go further in Paris than he did that year, as Sampras only reached one more semifinal throughout the remainder of his hallowed tennis career.

The same tournament eludes the otherwise omniscient grasp of Roger Federer, although the only thing that seems to stand in between Federer and the French Open trophy is Rafael Nadal. But at this point in his career, Federer presumably craves a Roland Garros title more than any other on the ATP calendar, as a triumph in Paris would give him the career Grand Slam. As if Federer needs anymore accolades to secure his name among tennis greats, that would put him in some kind of elite company as only four men have ever won the career Grand Slam.

England's Fred Perry won all four majors at least once in his career, completing the feat at the 1935 French Championships. Only have two men have won the true Grand Slam by winning all four in the same year. American Don Budge did it in 1938, while Australia's Rod Laver seized the Grand Slam an amazing two times, in 1962 and again in 1969. Most recently, another Australian by the name of Roy Emerson became the fourth and final man to complete the career Grand Slam when he captured the 1964 Wimbledon championship.

That means it's been almost 42 years since any man has accomplished the historic feat of winning all four Grand Slam singles titles. Looking at the current makeup of the ATP tour, it seems only Mr. Federer has any chance of ending the drought.

Barring some sort of heroic discovery of how to master both hard courts and Wimbledon's lawn, Rafael Nadal won't do it. Lleyton Hewitt has two slams on his resume, but he won't do it. Marat Safin owns one title each at the Australian and U.S. Opens, but clay undoes his enormous game and upon setting foot on England's grass courts, his brain becomes almost as slippery as the surface on which he is standing.

Simply put, it's all up to Roger if any tennis player of our generation will be able to legitimately say that he was a man for all surfaces.

Unless Nadal can somehow win the next four French Opens, Federer is a great bet to get the job done.

I mean, heck, even guys like Ukraine's Adrei Medvedev have a French Open to their credit. In 1999, Medvedev defeated Dominik Hrbaty in what is still the only all-unseeded Grand Slam final of the Open era. For Medvedev, now retired, it was his only appearance in a major's championship match, while Hrbaty is still looking to get back to such a stage for the second time in his career.

Another man who appears to be sprinting toward the history books as a one-hit wonder is Rainer Schuettler, who stunned the 2001 Australian Open field by winning the championship as the No. 31 seed. Of course, the German should be the first to admit that he benefited from a shockingly favorable draw.

In the third round, Schuettler advanced with a walkover when he was scheduled to meet third-seeded and wildly-talented Marat Safin. In the semifinals, Schuettler met Andy Roddick, who had just persevered through a quarterfinal marathon with Morocco's Younes El Aynaoui. In one of the most thrilling matches in tennis history, Roddick eventually triumphed 21-19 in the fifth set after a five-hour slugfest. For the exhausted Roddick, adding insult to injury — or should I say injury to insult — was that the American fell awkwardly on his elbow at match point against El Aynaoui. So in a semifinal match that Schuettler otherwise should no doubt have lost, he took out the hampered Roddick with relative ease.

As luck would have it, awaiting Schuettler in the finals was unseeded Wayne Ferreira. At 31-years-old and competing in his first ever Grand Slam final, Ferreira put up a fight early, but Schuettler eventually dispatched the South African to win his first and last Grand Slam title.

One of the more emotional Grand Slam victories in recent memory came Down Under in 2001, when local hero Patrick Rafter emerged unscathed from a grueling seven-match run through the Australian Open. Rafter gave the enthralled hometown crowd exactly what it came to see during the final weekend, as the Australian took out Todd Martin in the semifinals before decimating unseeded Frenchman Arnaud Clement in the finals.

Rafter, however, could not reproduce the same magic six months later at the All England Lawn & Tennis Club. After storming through the Wimbledon draw, Rafter met two-time champion Goran Ivanisevic for the title. To adequately place this clash of two great champions in proper historical context, we must flash back fourteen years in time.

At Wimbledon in 1992, Ivanisevic navigated a memorable run through the draw that resulted in his first Grand Slam title. After defeating No. 2 Stefan Edberg and fifth-ranked Pete Sampras in the quarterfinals and semifinals, respectively, the giant Croatian crushed unseeded veteran John McEnroe in the championship match.

With one Wimbledon title already in his back pocket, Ivanisevic brought with him a jovial attitude toward life both on and off the court and refused to be phased by future career disappointments. Having suffered several crushing defeats to Pete Sampras at Wimbledon between 1993 and 1995, Goran bounced back nicely the next year to hoist his second Wimbledon trophy.

So when Ivanisevic met Rafter in the 2001 Wimbledon final, it was the Australian — not Goran — who stepped on the hallowed grounds of Center Court as the sentimental favorite. Although the crowd urged Rafter to finally capture tennis' most famous championship, Ivanisevic played as if he was immune to the pressure of the moment and secured his third Wimbledon title.

While Rafter retired without a Wimbledon championship, he'll be remembered for finally coming through where it mattered most, in his homeland of Australia.

At the present time, the U.S. Open is starved for some of its own hometown heroism. Sure Andy Roddick thrilled the New York faithful with his victory in 2003, but the youngster did not and still does not captivate his national crowd in the same way an aging veteran like Patrick Rafter held his Aussie following spellbound with every stroke in 2001.

Our national championship also remains in wait of an unforgettable match that can rival the Connors/Krickstein 1992 legendary semifinal or Australia's Roddick-El Aynaoui classic.

It's certainly hard to pinpoint the most epic match of this year's Open. Perhaps it was Lleyton Hewitt's fourth-round victory over Richard Gasquet in which the Frenchman played a valiant fifth set with terrible cramps before succumbing to the fiery Australian. Or maybe it was one of a trio of matches that ventured into the exciting realm of a fifth-set tiebreaker, such as the Safin/Haas fourth-round collision.

All I'm sure of is that the 2006 Open's most memorable duel was not eighth-seeded Marcos Baghdatis' second or third round match. In the second round, the flamboyant Cypriot dismantled veteran Andrei Pavel in straight sets. Baghdatis followed up the rout by utterly destroying somebody named Benjamin Becker from Germany. "B. Becker," unseeded and ranked 112 in the world, is almost completely unknown to the tennis world and will be remembered only for not being Boris Becker.

It's equally difficult to put a finger on the defining match of the 2005 U.S. Open, although the stars of the tournament were Americans Robby Ginepri and James Blake. Ginepri certainly had flair for the dramatic that year, winning three consecutive five-set matches over Haas, Gasquet, and Guillermo Coria to reach the semifinals. Blake, energized throughout the fortnight by the raucous "J-Block," took out Ginepri in the semis before losing in his first ever Grand Slam final appearance to the invincible Federer.

Of course, there are far more pressing issues right now than the recent dearth of U.S. Open drama or the general malaise of American tennis.

Take, for example, the situation in Las Vegas, where disadvantaged and at-risk youth have no safe haven toward which to turn. When will someone step up and open up a tuition-free charter school for the youth? When will Vegas's Clark County receive adequate funding to host a residential facility for abused and neglected children? Who, in Las Vegas areas beset by drugs and gangs, will establish a Boys and Girls Club so that kids can choose not to fall in with the wrong crowd after the school day, but instead receive extra training in the educational, recreational, and social facets of life?

Wait, that just reminded me. I just realized there is something more I can say about Andre Agassi, even though it has been said many times before.

In a word, thanks.

And in saying such a profound and heartfelt "thanks," I know I speak for many more than just myself. I say thanks not only on behalf of the thousands of children whose lives you have touched, or the handful of young Americans just now picking up their tennis rackets for the first time who are destined to become the future of American tennis because of the inspiration you have given them. No, I also say thanks on behalf of professional tennis players both past and present, many of whom you unassumingly deprived of a Grand Slam title or two.

I say thanks on behalf of Pete Sampras, whose legend could be even more amazing with 16 Grand Slam titles, but who would not have been a part of one of tennis's all-time great rivalries.

I say thanks on behalf of Americans Andy Roddick, James Blake, and Robby Ginepri, all three of whom would have more impressive results on their resumes, but all three of whom would have been deprived of a mentor who led by example in terms of carrying oneself both on and off the court.

I even say thanks on behalf of Marcos Baghdatis, who missed a chance to make a deep run at the 2006 U.S. Open, perhaps costing him a berth in the year-end Masters Cup, but who will be a fan favorite in New York for years to come as he navigates his way through many more U.S. Open draws.

Thanks, Andre. I don't know what the game would have been like without you.