Agassi not ready to say goodbye

Andre Agassi staved off retirement with a riveting 6-7 (4-7) 7-6 (10-8) 7-6 (8-6) 6-2 victory over Romania’s Andrei Pavel on what turned out to be a late Monday night at the US Open.

It was the first match at the newly named “USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center” and 23,736 fans – a record crowd for a night session – watched Agassi stage an emotional comeback.

After winning the second set with a thrilling rally during the tie-break, Agassi lost the first four games of the third but after dropping the initial point of the fifth game, he opted to change rackets. The change seemed to work as Agassi won the next five games, taking a 5-4 lead on an ace.

But after Pavel rallied to level the set at five games apiece, Agassi again changed rackets.

Agassi then won the next game by executing a difficult overhand lob but he was unable to rally from a 0-30 deficit, forcing a third straight tie-break.

He stormed into a 5-2 lead only for Pavel to win four of the next five points to stave off set point three times.

But on the fourth set point, Pavel committed a fault on his serve. Agassi then finished off the set with a crosscourt winner that just eluded Pavel.

The final set started off easily for Agassi as he won the first four games and, despite losing two of the next three games, the American finished off Pavel.

When the three-hour, 31-minute match ended the cheers that had slowly started to become louder turned into a standing ovation as Agassi bowed to the crowd.

Agassi’s remarkable career will continue on Wednesday against eighth-seeded Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus.

That will give fans another opportunity to display their appreciation for Agassi, which they did throughout the match with chants of “Let’s Go Andre” and “Here We Go Agassi“.

The 36-year-old Las Vegas native announced at Wimbledon that he would retire after the US Open.

An eight-time grand slam champion who won at Flushing Meadows in 1994 and 1999 and reached four other finals there, Agassi is playing in his open era-record 61st major and his 21st US Open.

“I want to be here real bad for the whole two weeks and it’s six more (wins),” Agassi said.

Persistent back pain has limited Agassi to only seven tournaments this year, at which he won just eight matches. The runner-up to Roger Federer a year ago, he has not played since being stunned by obscure Italian Andrea Stoppini at Washington four weeks ago.