Andre Agassi turned back the years last night to beat former world No. 1 Marat Safin 2-6, 7-6, 13-11 in an exhibition match at the Taipei Arena.
The eight-time Grand Slam winner was giving away 10 years to his Russian opponent, but still showed flashes of the brilliance that has earned him the status of one of tennis’ all-time greats.
Although perhaps a little chunkier than in his prime, some fine winners and spectacular shot-making showed the ATP Tour what its been missing over the past few years.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
The Las Vegas player’s familiar pigeon-toed gait had not been seen in Taiwan since 1988, but although he now has considerably less hair than in those days, his supreme talent has not disappeared.
Agassi still had time for a bit of fun, at one point taking over as a ballboy. Safin was also in a party mood, catching a ball in his pocket and helping out with repairs to the net.
In the evening’s first contest, Taiwan’s Lu Yen-hsun (盧彥勳) had a good workout in an entertaining contest against world No. 10 Mikhail Youzhny, claiming the one-set showdown 7-6 (7-5).
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
Lu, currently ranked No. 35 in the world, hit some good winners and his serve seemed to be in good working order, but how useful the contest was as a barometer for what might happen at the Australian Open later this month, the first Grand Slam of the year, is debatable.
It’s not often a player will act as a waiter in the middle of a match, as Youzhny did at one point when he served Lu a bottle of water after a particularly grueling rally, but it was all part of the fun on an entertaining evening in Taipei.
Lu for his part gave the Russian a NT$100 tip for his service and joked that he had bribed the line judges when a close call went his way.
Photo: CNA
A doubles match between Lu and Agassi and Safin and Taiwan’s Jimmy Wang (王宇佐) was still in progress at press time.
Earlier, Wang, the Taiwanese player with the most wins in the Davis Cup and the Taiwan’s youngest national champion as a 15-year-old, described the past three years as “a period of self-exploration during which I learned to dialogue with myself” after seeing his world ranking dropping from No. 85 to No. 797 and his professional career collapse.
“I have been trying to look at my on-court performance rather than the results, and to enjoy every match as much as possible,” Wang said.
Fresh from training in Kenya to prepare for the upcoming Australian Open, Lu, who is Asia’s top-ranked player, was thinking about different things.
Conditioning is the key because “physically I’m no longer young,” Lu said
He said that stamina is the key to success for a professional tennis player.
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