Agassi says he'll play Aussie Open - 網球

Agassi says he'll play Aussie Open

Andre Agassi still plans to play in the Australian Open despite injuring
his hip in an exhibition tournament, the star told ESPN on Friday morning.

Agassi suffered the injury during an exhibition match against Andy Roddick
on Thursday. Agassi was trailing 6-5 in his Kooyong Classic match when he
retired.

Agassi said he felt tightness in the muscle at the front of his right hip
and would have an MRI to determine the damage.

"The good news is that it didn't just tear, it was tightening up and that
can be your body protecting itself, which is hopefully more of the issue,"
Agassi said. "That wasn't comfortable out there at all, what I was feeling.
I have to wait and see what I'm dealing with — it's a pretty scary feeling
out there when something doesn't feel right and is getting worse.

"It's very disappointing and I'll have to do my best to deal with it."

Top-ranked Roger Federer and Roddick will meet Saturday in a possible
preview of the Australian Open final.

Federer beat Tim Henman 6-4, 6-2 in just 61 minutes Friday in the Kooyong
Classic exhibition tournament.

Agassi also will be in action Saturday after asking tournament officials to
let him play Henman in a final Australian Open tuneup match. They will meet
after Federer and Roddick play in the final.

Roddick withdrew from their exhibition match on the corresponding Saturday
last year because of blisters, and Federer was excited by the opportunity
to play a close rival just two days before the start of the year's first
Grand Slam tournament.

"I'm looking forward to this prospect because it's always nice when the
No. 1 and No. 2 play each other," said Federer, the defending Australian
Open champion.

Despite the proximity of his first-round Australian Open match against
Fabrice Santoro, Federer said he wouldn't be holding much in reserve
against Roddick.

"You've just got to make sure you don't pull a muscle," Federer said. "Other
than that, once you play, looking ahead to the Open, you shouldn't change
yourgame too much because you might enter the tournament confused."

Olympic gold medalist Nicolas Massu retired in the second set against David
Nalbandian when he was down 6-4, 2-1 in a matchup of relegated players.

Massu, who had a hernia operation in November, said he'd hurt his left ankle
and didn't want to risk aggravating it too much before the Open.

"This was one of the first matches for me in three months, so I started to
feel some pain and I didn't want to hurt anymore," he said. "I want to be
sure that it's OK."

Gaston Gaudio played Ivan Ljubicic later Friday in another match of
noncontenders.


http://msn.foxsports.com/story/3323344

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