FROM THE ARCHIVE - MONDAY, JUNE 7th, 1999 The 1999 French Open will be remembered for producing one of the most exciting men's finals in history. John O'Sullivanwas in Paris for The Irish Timesand sent this report
JOHN McENROE’S silence spoke volumes. Commentating for NBC, he could offer no words to describe the pictures that recorded the mass hysteria which greeted Andre Agassi’s 1-6, 2-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 victory over Andrei Medvedev yesterday.
Roland Garros stood in noisy acclamation of a staggering comeback that allowed the 29-year-old Agassi to muscle into a previously select group of four.
It now numbers five, as the Las Vegas native joined Donald Budge, Fred Perry, Roy Emerson and Rod Laver as the only men to win the four Grand Slam tournaments.
How appropriate, therefore, that it was the Australian Laver who handed Agassi the Coupe des Mousquetaires.
Agassi’s tears that greeted Medvedev’s long, looping forehand return which drifted over the baseline on the American’s fourth championship point were equally appropriate.
Emotionally and physically drained, even he could offer no explanation of how he managed to transform a two-sets-to-love deficit into one of the great recoveries.
“I don’t know. I’m blessed. I never dreamt that I would see this day,” he said. “That was certainly the greatest feeling that I have ever had on a tennis court. Assigned a place among the great players of the game is unbelievable. I can’t get my head around it.”
Agassi’s performance was a remarkable on court metamorphosis. It was almost a lemming-like trait as Agassi inextricably hurtled to the precipice of defeat, offering up the first two sets with minimum resistance.
The greater his discomfort, the more he speeded up between points. Soon the errors became a blur and his dreams threatened to crumble into the red dust of Roland Garros.
Twice a losing finalist, Agassi appeared handicapped by an all-consuming desperation to win that manifested itself in manic nervous tension. He willed balls out, periodically checked the red clay for marks he hoped would provide an overrule.
He bore the hunted expression of a fugitive who gradually realises there might be no escape.
In mitigation, Medvedev produced some scintillating tennis, serving superbly – he would serve 23 aces in total, a phenomenal number on clay – and jumped all over the Agassi delivery, particularly his second serve. He crushed one double-handed backhand after another past the bemused American and completely dominated the baseline exchanges.
The 24-year-old Ukrainian did not lose a point on his first serve in those opening sets.
Of that period, Medvedev admitted: “He wasn’t hurting me with his groundstrokes, he was struggling, but in the third set that changed.”
The French Open final seemed destined to provide a fanfare to the rehabilitation of Medvedev. Once ranked four in the world, he had tumbled to 100th, largely through poor attitude.
The rekindling of his relationship with tennis player Anke Huber, and with it a more positive outlook on life, brought the articulate and affable Ukrainian to the brink of Grand Slam success. His magnanimity in defeat will provide one of the abiding memories of the French Open.
“I lost to a great player today. I wouldn’t say that it was an honour to lose, but it is an honour to stand beside him now after what he has achieved.”
In danger of a thrashing, Agassi scrambled for a new strategy and hit upon trying to apply pressure by coming to the net more often. The statistics would have offered him little succour. Agassi had only once come back from two sets down in a Grand Slam, overhauling Jim Courier at the 1996 Australian Open. He also held a career 15-16 five-set record.
But Medvedev harboured skeletons too, having twice lost a two- sets-to-love lead in a Grand Slam.
Agassi toughed it out in the third set, gradually establishing a more fluent rhythm to his groundstrokes, and his tenacity was rewarded with a break in the 10th game to give him the set.
The momentum had shifted, exemplified by the American racing to a 3-0 lead in the fourth set as Agassi’s return of serve suddenly earned its more familiar, withering pace, and he took the set 6-3 in 40 minutes.
Perhaps the crucial moment in the fifth was when Agassi survived a break point in the second game. Medvedev admitted this would linger in his memory. “It’s the one I’ll remember. I went for a strange shot that wouldn’t have hurt him even if it went in. I made a mistake.”
The Ukrainian, already a break down from game five, saved three championship points in the eighth; but, in the next, three service winners from 15-15 handed Agassi the crowning moment of his career.
