The last Wimbledon-Interview - 網球

A. Agassi Interview - Day 6
Saturday, 1 July, 2006

Q. There was a point in the first set where you still had every reason to
believe you might be able to continue to be on this....

ANDRE AGASSI: Yeah, well, I don't think I ever got to deuce on his serve, so
that's a problem. At 5-2 in the tiebreaker, 5-4, I just missed a forehand,
little bit. You know, should have made that. Then he made an incredible
passing shot at 5 All. Once that first set was gone, sort of the prospects
got grimmer for me. I wasn't getting a look at too many of his service games,
you know, just when he got a chance, I hit his first shot, it was almost
impossible to recover from there. His movement is just out of this world.

Q. Is that the toughest part of it, dealing with his movement?

ANDRE AGASSI: Yeah, for sure. Because even when I'm on offense, I'm only
winning half those points. I mean, that's on grass, too.

Q. Does he prolong points better than anyone you've played against?

ANDRE AGASSI: "Prolong"? What do you mean?

Q. Keep going them. You think you won it...

ANDRE AGASSI: Yeah, it's not so much that he's good at being a punching bag
or something, running down balls and getting them back; he actually can do
something with it. Then if he decides to amp it up a little bit, he can
actually get dangerous from the full run. You never know when to come in
because you're never sure when you're in position to. You hit a good shot and
you think, I should be coming in against any normal player, but you know that
he's gonna be there so you hesitate for that split second, and, you know, and
you're glad you didn't come in because he was there in plenty of time.

Q. Does that make him like a punching bag who hits you back?

ANDRE AGASSI: Yeah, he takes a lot and gives even more.

Q. How do you think you'll look back on your final Wimbledon experience?

ANDRE AGASSI: I'll need some time for that to absorb in, you know. I just
wanted to get into a place where I felt like I was playing well and give
myself a chance, and I did that. I mean, I went out there today and he just
beat me. So that part felt good, just to get ready and play, get through one
match, play a good match and then put myself in position to hopefully have
something good happen. But, you know, was hoping for too much.

Q. What was most uplifting about what you experienced in terms of the
interaction with the people here, the grounds, your feelings about being back
on these grounds?

ANDRE AGASSI: Well, it's just nice to come back here on my terms, to say,
This is where I want to be. I'm regretful of missing the last couple of
years. You know, I think to wait a year to come back here would have been too
long. I needed to make it right to get here now, and I'm glad I did that.
It's been a privilege to be out there again for one last time. I'll look back
at this as one of my most memorable experiences. To say good bye, for me,
this means as much as winning, saying good bye.

Q. Do you think it's possible for a player to put himself in the sort of
mindset of a fan who is seeing an iconic player for the last time in a major
tournament, experience what that fan is feeling for the last time?

ANDRE AGASSI: No, I mean, I don't think I could do that, no. Maybe somebody
else could. But, no. You know, it's too subjective, you know. I'm out there
feeling what I'm feeling, you know. I'm out there it's a privilege for me to
be out there, not for them to be.

Q. Do you remember yourself playing in similar situations against, say, John
McEnroe or Lendl, somebody where you were the other guy on the other side, a
legendary player was going out?

ANDRE AGASSI: Like literally last match? Close to it?

Q. Close to it.

ANDRE AGASSI: Yeah, I played John in the semis here. I played Connors. I
guess he was maybe 36, 37 at the Open in the quarterfinals couple years in a
row.

Q. Is it a tough thing when you're in those shoes to come into that
situation, or is it easy? What's it like?

ANDRE AGASSI: You know, you're young. I mean, I was 18, 19 years old. I mean,
you're eager and all you're thinking about is really the next point, you
know. You're not really taking it all into the equation. I recognize that in
Nadal, you know. He has a real sense of professionalism when it comes to his
environment, but he's out there trying to win the next point every time.
Sometimes you have to wait three minutes to play the next point, too
(smiling).

Q. You had an estimation of him as a player on grass beforehand. You weren't
sure.

ANDRE AGASSI: Yeah.

Q. Having played him now, what do you make of him on this surface?

ANDRE AGASSI: Well, the only thing he seems to struggle with would be his
forehand return, you know. He can start slicing that a lot. Maybe only a few
servers, you know, can exploit something like that. But his movement
translates to every surface. There's no question about that. I think he's the
best mover that's out there, you know. He just seems to really explode and
anticipate and all of the above, and do a lot with the ball. So, you know,
grass is a shot making court. And if he's making guys feel like they can't
hit winners out there on grass, that speaks to his presence out there. You
know, you leave a lot of room for a champion's heart and mind, and he can
certainly be here with high expectations.

Q. You've earned millions in prize money down the years, but can you put a
value on what's in your memory bank from here?

ANDRE AGASSI: No, I wouldn't sell it for anything, that's for sure.

Q. Wimbledon, as you indicated, is much more than just a tennis tournament.
It's about a culture, how to treat people, tradition. What are the things
you've learned from coming to this environment for so long?

ANDRE AGASSI: Well, I think this was a place that first taught me to respect
the sport, really, I mean, you know, to really appreciate the opportunity and
privilege it is to play a game for a living, to play tennis. People work five
days a week to play on the weekend. We get to call it a job, you know. I
think I learned that here. Missing it for a few years, coming back, being
embraced, seeing the respect for tennis and the respect for the competitors,
you know, the appreciation for it. They're here come rain or shine. Through
the years I've seen them sit through some tough conditions just to see a few
minutes of play. Whether they're queuing up on the outside or sitting with
their umbrellas in Centre Court, you know, it's quite a love for the sport.
That's what separates this from every other event.

Q. Can you think of anything more touching in sports than that queue goes on
for a mile or so, 36 hours?

ANDRE AGASSI: No, it's a real humbling experience to be driving in a
Wimbledon transportation car, to pull in, to actually have a hit out there
when you see these people living there for days to hopefully get in, to see a
little bit of tennis on most likely the back courts. Yeah, it really makes

you appreciate what we get to do.

Q. When you play someone that tough, who's that good, who's basically been
unbeatable since April, does it enter the back of your mind, Wow, maybe I can
do this for another year at a high level?

ANDRE AGASSI: No, no (smiling). I mean, I don't feel like sort of my
announcement for this tournament was a statement to what I'm not able to do
as much as what I don't choose to really, you know. It's been this year has
been a dramatic difference for me from last year and the years before. I
mean, I'm out there most of the time worried about how I'm going to feel
coming back from these. You can't sort of play like that, you know. You can't
live with those two days up, two days down, you know, two steps forward, two
steps back. You can't do it. It gets fatiguing, it gets tiring. From a skill
level, I mean, this is the fourth match I've played in months, you know. I
feel like I can only get better from here. I mean, that's how if I just had
to base it on today, and I know that would put me in the realm of making
somebody earn a victory against me, no question about it. But I don't want to
do that.

Q. What did you say to Rafael when shaking hands have after the end?

ANDRE AGASSI: Oh, just wished him the best for the rest of this event,
tournament.

Q. You see him going all the way to the final or something like that?

ANDRE AGASSI: You know, if he has to play me over again, he'd get to the
finals (smiling). But, you know, yeah, I really thought that when I hit my
quality shot, I could get him behind. He still was moving so well that even
on grass he wasn't getting behind. Then all he has to do is hit one shot
that's a little bit out of my strike zone, he takes over the point and then
doesn't let it go. This is a great way to play tennis, you know. He makes
people have to do something special. And then if people decide to be patient,
then he takes it to them. So you have to play a good match to beat him, or
you have to be Roger, I mean, on grass.

Q. After you stopped and signed autographs, as you walked out for the last
time, were there any special thoughts, Here I am leaving, or was that part of
the whole experience?

ANDRE AGASSI: Yeah, part of what I felt when the match was over till I got
off, it was all the same.

Q. Did you shed a tear?

ANDRE AGASSI: Yeah, I have, I have, on more than this occasion.

Q. Did your loss to LeConte tell you, Gee, this place isn't for me?

ANDRE AGASSI: It made me think that, for sure. Didn't help that I never
played on grass, came here, it rained for a week straight, then I was
indoors, and all of a sudden I was playing on grass on Court No. 2 against
LeConte. I wasn't in a position to succeed.

Q. When you walked off the court for the last time with Nadal, do you take
any comfort in that it's someone like him that, you know, maybe is a symbolic
baton passing as opposed to somebody else?

ANDRE AGASSI: I don't think I have that sort of poetic side to me really, you
know. I would have been proud to shake the hand of anybody that beat me,
really. Maybe a little bit more him just because of how I've admired him grow
as a player. I've seen him since he's been pretty young out there. I've seen
him improve. I've admired this record that I never thought would get beaten,
Vilas' wins on clay, the way he's gone after Roger in all their battles. You
know, there's just a lot to respect about the guy. Then when you get out
there and feel his game, you can only tip your hat to it.

Q. What did Steffi say to you afterwards? She's obviously gone through the
same process of retiring from being a great champion here.

ANDRE AGASSI: Who's that?

Q. What did Steffi say to you?

ANDRE AGASSI: I haven't spoken to her yet. I haven't spoken to her yet.

Q. What made his serve so tough for you?

ANDRE AGASSI: Well, you know, his serve is, first of all, it's it really is
an awkward movement through the air, so you never get a real clean swing at
it unless you're able to give it time to settle down. And then if you do
that, you have to back up and you're really giving him position on the
court.But more than that, if you don't hit a good return like a really good
return he's going to take hold of that first shot. I can't afford for that to
happen. Maybe somebody with better wheels than me can afford for that to
happen a few more times. But once he got me a bit behind in the point, you
know, the point was pretty much over. So I have to take more chances to get a
good hit, which means you start leaning and you start taking bigger swings
and you start playing closer to the lines. But his serve has an awkward spin
to it, plus he's, you know he backs it up very well.

Q. It's reasonable to believe that he's going to get even better on grass as
he plays more and more on it. Is it too early to think what a lot of people
might have thought was unthinkable before this tournament, that he could
actually challenge Roger Federer on a grass court?

ANDRE AGASSI: How do you say he couldn't, or anybody really at that matter? I
mean, listen, we all marvel at what Roger has done, there's no question, none
more than me. I watch him play and have an appreciation for it from not just
the stands but also the best seat in the house, which is the other side of
the net. So I've admired it and all that. But, you know, if tennis was as
easy as phoning in the results, you know, I would have just called in a win
today against Nadal, you know. Just doesn't happen that way. You have to come
out; you have to do it. That's one thing that I keep speaking to in
competition, you know. The competitor's heart and mind leave a lot of room
for a lot of things that we might think is crazy to happen.

Q. What do you look forward to most over the next couple of months in
preparation for the US Open and through the US Open?

ANDRE AGASSI: I look forward to the playing. I mean, I've got a few matches
in here. I've sort of got a taste of the pressure and the standard of what I
need to be doing. I felt like my game relaxed a little bit and I started to
get a bit more comfortable out there. So now I look forward to that happening
on the hard courts 'cause that's always easier on me physically. And I just
look forward to hopefully a good run over the summer.

Q. Years from now when Jaden's kid comes up to you and says, Hey, what have
you contributed most to that game of tennis, in your heart what would you say
to him?

ANDRE AGASSI: You know, when I first came on to the scene, I was the first
person to hit the ball big off both wings, take the ball early and give it a
good ride if I was in position off both sides. And as I look back, I would
love to feel like I was part of that evolution of the game, where I helped
the game and those around me get better.

Q. Knowing when to retire is a question that a lot of athletes, every athlete
has to deal with. There's really no blueprint for it. It's different for
everybody. You, of course, have a resource that almost no athlete has ever
had, having a great champion who's done it. Did Steffi ever tell you anything
that sort of said, Think about this before you do it? Or did she not really
say anything?

ANDRE AGASSI: We are so sort of opposite in so many ways, you know. We're
just the same in important ways and we're different thank goodness in other
ways, you know. She's very clear. She knows it right when she feels it and
doesn't question it and moves forward, you know, on any decision in life.
That's the way she went about her profession. I'm a little different. I sort
of I feel something, I need to understand it, I need to sort of process it, I
need to come to terms with it, get my arms around it, wrestle with it a
little bit and torture myself in the process. So I just feel like this time
hasn't been so difficult. The first few months of this year were very
difficult. The end of last year was difficult. The pressure of trying to get
ready for Australia, not knowing if I was going to be able to, not being able
to get out there and move the way I wanted to. Then, you know, earlier this
year, which is when I really still felt like I'm one of the best to play out
here, I just was it was not easy for me to not feel right out there on the
court. But over the past few months, this realization has been a lot easier.
There is no sort of blueprint for it, but I can assure you that it's
something you feel pretty deep.

Q. So when did the torture end?

ANDRE AGASSI: When I pulled out of Key Biscayne. I just, you know, had at
that point to call it like it was. I wasn't ready to be on the court. I made
some tough decisions. But I pulled the plug on putting myself through it in
Key Biscayne, because I couldn't, and then I just had to take a deep breath
and start to look at it a bit more, you know, look at it from sort of 50,000
feet, you know, take a bigger look.

Q. For the next three months you will still be a tennis player. Then
afterwards what are you thinking of? What will happen after? Are you curious?
Are you worried? You don't care? You are positive? You are optimistic?

ANDRE AGASSI: You know, I've spent 20 years waking up saying, you know, What
do I have to do today? I'm going to spend now the rest of my life waking up
and saying, What do I want my life to look like? It's going to be a quest and
a journey that I'll take on with every bit as much passion. Being bored is
not an option for me, that I can assure you. Being bored is bad for me
(smiling) and for my wife.

Q. A lot of people speak about you that we've talked to, they don't just say
you were a great tennis player, but they talk about you being a humanitarian,
everything you do for children. Can you talk about the importance of that
role for you.

ANDRE AGASSI: It's very important, you know. I've spent the last, geez, since
I was 23 years old. So, what is that, thirteen years, building my foundation.
We've probably raised in excess of $75 million for inner city children. I
started with the Boys and Girls Club because it was a great national
organization. I thought it gives kids after school programs that would help
keep them off the streets and drugs and all that stuff. I realized sort of
through that process that really the only way to make a difference in a
child's life is to help them learn how to make better decisions for
themselves. So it sort of led to education, which we took on this charter
school that's about a $30 million project where we take kids that are a year
to two years behind, that have single parent, whatever, it's their mom or dad
that's raising them, in the poorest part of Las Vegas. It's the children that
society has written off the most. We bring them up to grade level inside a
year. We are the only school nationally recognized, we were deemed exemplary,
nationally recognized for our success in helping these kids. It's been a big
part of my life, and putting a lot of these pieces in place. But now with
more time on my hands down the road, I get to enjoy that more firsthand, you
know, really be able to be a part of seeing that difference. I enjoy that.
And also I have more time to sort of push this dream even further, you know.
We want this school to be a blueprint or a model, if you will, for how
education can be in our whole country. I think that's realistic.

Q. When this is over, will Gil still be there to drive you through workouts?

ANDRE AGASSI: Well, we've promised each other a long time ago that we'd be
there for each other no matter how we needed it. So something tells me that
he would, if that's what I wanted.

Q. Maybe a couple of words about what he's meant for your career over the
last 20 years.

ANDRE AGASSI: Gil was the one that taught me to look at tennis as an athletic
sport, to really address it from the standpoint of if you make yourself
stronger, you make yourself more capable. You look at how other sports have
changed over generations. Look at baseball. There was a time and day when,
you know, they were really sort of skinny and didn't lift weights. While
there's been a lot of discussion as to the means to which they've
accomplished it, the one thing you can't deny is what it is they were trying
to accomplish, which is, Let's get stronger, because when you are, you do
things better, you know, whatever you ask your body to do. So I feel like he
sort of gave me a mentality that got me into a working mind. I never took
really days off very often. I pushed myself hard. I built a base that allowed
me to sort of transcend some generations and compete against guys that were,
you know, much bigger than me, taller than me, you know, arguably faster than
me, in some cases better than me. So I think he made me do this for a long
time. He made me do it long enough to really be here and able to appreciate
it and take it in.

Q. Do you see yourself staying in the sport at any level, or do you need to
take a year or two off, work with the charity, the school and all that? Can
you see yourself doing Davis Cup or commentary or a tournament or anything
like that?

ANDRE AGASSI: Well, I mean, for me, it would be a joy and a privilege to help
this sport move forward, you know, it really would be. How I would be a part
of this would be something I'd, you know I would need to be a little clearer
on. I mean, I enjoy talking about the game, but I don't think much about
haven't thought much about doing commentary. I love Davis Cup. It's been a
great part of my career. I haven't thought about that. I haven't thought
about other areas of this game. But I would definitely want to be it's my
life. It's hard just to close a book and walk away. I mean, I hope it takes
on a whole new dynamic.

Q. Talk about Perry Rogers and his impact on your career and you as a man.

ANDRE AGASSI: Well, Perry and I have been best friends since I was 11 years
old, and now he's run my whole business for the last 11 years, 12 years, more
than that, 14 years almost. Uhm, you know, he's taken me from a tennis player
to grow up to, you know, who I am today. I mean, he's built a business that I
still marvel at. I mean, when I look around at all the things that he's sort
of put in place for me. But at the end of the day, business has been such a
great excuse for us just to spend time together, and that's the best part of
it. Sort of to achieve a high level of success in any area of life, you need
to have a great support system. You need to have great people around you,
people a lot better and smarter than you. I've been blessed to have that, to
have that with Perry, to have that with Gil, to have that with my wife.
They've made a lot of things easier on me.

Q. Three years ago, we were asking Gil Reyes until when Andre is going to
play. He said when you train, all the effort you do, going up to the
mountain, two hours under the sun playing, etc., etc., and he says he has a
bright in his eyes; the day this brightness will go, then we will prepare the
luggage and we will depart. He said that.

ANDRE AGASSI: Yeah, yeah, he knows me pretty well. But, yeah, I think maybe
the you could ask him if the brightness left, I don't know (smiling). It
certainly has as far as running the hill.

Q. What will you miss most about Wimbledon?

ANDRE AGASSI: The people, all my friends, all the relationships I've
developed here, the familiar faces, the love they have for the sport. You do
things, some things great, some things not so good, but one thing you
remember through all those experiences are people, your experiences, your
interactions. It's that one ball kid that looked at you a certain way or, you
know, that you said something to afterwards, people working here.

Q. I was just going to ask you, do you remember, was there a moment where you
first thought that Wimbledon, you could play your best tennis at Wimbledon?
Was it more a gradual thing of coming back until you found that? Do you
remember?

ANDRE AGASSI: When I missed the few years?

Q. I just wondered if there was a certain time where you thought you could
play your best tennis here, that Wimbledon would see the best of your tennis,
just that belief of playing on grass, playing here?

ANDRE AGASSI: Yeah, I think I had to come here and prove it. I didn't know
much about it coming here three years after I missed it back in '91. But I
got really close that year, you know. I mean, I lost in the quarterfinals up
two sets to one, 4 1, in the quarters. I would have had to play Becker in the
semis. I had a good record against him, you know. So I really felt like that
year, you know, I could use some shot making to make some things happen.
Yeah, the next year went pretty well.

THE MODERATOR: Ladies and gentlemen, we've, believe it or not, had nearly
half an hour. If there's one last question...

Q. How is your back feeling today out there?

ANDRE AGASSI: It's good, good (smiling). Good enough. Feeling a lot better
than the match.

Q. Was there a time in the last few years where you actually seriously
considered retiring and then backed away from it because you decided you
weren't ready?

ANDRE AGASSI: It's been something I've had to sort of be aware of. You don't
really think of it through the lens of, Okay, I really want to retire, or, Is
retirement going to happen? You just have to assess the pieces, I mean. It
starts inside the lines. Then it also moves to your family, what you're
putting them through, just the priorities and the responsibilities you have.
I've consistently felt those pressures build up as well. I mean, it's not as
easy anymore to practically have this life style. But I think last three or
four years, I think I've had to always sort of keep it in the mix and make
sure that I could answer the question when I asked it.


看完他 please................



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