By Josh Staloch
It’s not every day that you gets the opportunity to speak to a childhood sports hero, even if it’s just for a few minutes.
Last Thursday, a representative from the American Tennis Association called me to see if the paper would be interested in attending this month’s SAP open at the HP Pavillion in San Jose. At the time, I wasn’t sure if we’d be able to make it and so that’s pretty much what I told him. He asked me to let him know sometime this week if anything should happen to change.
No problem.
His next question floored me though.
“So, would you maybe be interested in sitting in on a conference call tomorrow afternoon with Andre Agassi?”
Well, let’s see. Given the fact that I never would have picked up a tennis racket at the age of 13 had it not been for the long-haired, flourescent-shoe-sporting tennis rebel, yes, I would probably be interested in bouncing a couple of questions off Andre’s now-bald dome.
It was pretty tough to be active in tennis once my family moved to Wisconsin. When I made the varsity team my freshman year (no, I wasn’t a superstar athlete, it was just a very small school) we played our first tournament on the heels of that winter’s last big snowstorm.
Yep, nothing quite like rushing up the court for a volley, hitting the brakes, sliding into the net and ending up on the other side of the court. On your face.
Loads of fun. Plus the thrill of playing tennis in gloves and six layers of clothing.
Anyway, those memories aside, last Thursday I dialed up the 800 number, punched in an access code and was admitted into the conference call. I was pretty nervous about the whole thing so I made the call a few minutes early and was one of the first writers on the line. Every minute or so, a new caller would come in and the moderator would ask who was joining the call. For about five minutes, I waited as some of the world’s best tennis writers joined the conversation.
And then, right on schedule, the phone beeped twice, prompting the moderator to ask who was on the line now.
“Hey, this is Andre.”
That was pretty special. And I got it all on tape.
Agassi endured 30 minutes of answering questions he has to be sick of hearing by now.
Questions on his health, his hip, his level of commitment, how much longer he plans on playing the game.
He took it all in stride, answering each question candidly and without a hint of the resentment athletes often display when they become annoyed with hearing the same thing from reporters over and over again.
And then it was my turn.
Most of the generic questions I had come up with, all concerning his performance at the Australian Open and how he feels about his chances of winning another Grand Slam title before he retires, had already been asked.
So, I asked him about 1987, when, sitting at No. 90 in the rankings, he almost gave the game up before his career really took off.
Agassi told me that tennis has always been something he’s had to come to terms with in his life as far as the amount of focus and desire he had to put into it. He said that at the time, he was just confused and trying to figure out what was important to him and why.
Basically, his near-decision to quit was the result of an emotional reaction to a very tough couple months of tennis.
With my follow-up question, I asked him to speculate on what the face of the game might look like today had he decided to call it quits 18 years ago.
I was happy to get a laugh out of him.
“I don’t know if I’m objective enough to answer that question,” Agassi replied. “I suppose tennis never would have had jean shorts.”
Pastel-colored Nikes and the short tennis career of this columnist probably wouldn’t have made it either.
