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Still playing Agassi comes back; Hingis wins again
Posted: Friday June 30, 2000 11:32 PM
WIMBLEDON, England (AP) -- Memories of one of the worst chokes in Wimbledon history swept through Centre Court, filling Andre Agassi with hope, Todd Martin with doubt and cringing fans with a painful sense of deja vu. As much as Agassi thrilled the crowd Friday by saving two match points as he scraped back from 2-5 in the fifth set to win 6-4, 2-6, 7-6 (3), 2-6, 10-8, Martin's collapse provided agonizing drama. Martin didn't quite choke this time, as he admitted he did when he blew a 5-1 lead in the fifth set on the same court against MaliVai Washington in the 1996 semifinals, but he tightened up on key points and let another big match slip away in a kind of slow torture. "Don't do it again," Martin said he told himself as the apparent victory began to vanish. Against Washington, Martin said, he "forgot to breathe," got tight and panicked with victory in his grasp. Yet he did it again, albeit in a different way. Agassi said he was "well aware of the fact that he's managed to do that there before on Centre Court" and the thought of another collapse by Martin crossed Agassi's mind as he saw him make more and more mistakes. "It turned out to be a factor, but I wasn't counting on that," Agassi said. They began this match Thursday, but were stopped by rain with Martin up a break at 1-0 in the fourth set after Agassi fell hard on the slippery court at break point. Agassi furiously lambasted referee Alan Mills at the time for not halting the match at the end of the third set when it was already drizzling. "I phoned (Mills) up this morning and told him that I apologized for raising my tone," Agassi said. "At that particular moment, I was very frustrated and concerned, based on what happened in Queen's." Agassi strained his back slipping on damp grass at the tuneup tournament at Queen's Club, and he lay on the court this time for a while as if checking all his body parts. "I was just lying there trying to stall, hoping it would rain more," Agassi said with a smile. "I went over and toweled off, just worked it like a veteran." When they resumed under hazy, threatening skies Friday afternoon, Martin could do almost nothing wrong for the first hour. Rain later in the evening would give six-time champion and top-seeded Pete Sampras an extra day to recover from acute tendinitis in his left leg as his match against Justin Gimelstob was postponed until Saturday. Before the rain came, Martina Hingis, Serena Williams and Anke Huber recorded straight-sets victories. The second-seeded Agassi, upset in the second round at the French Open just four weeks ago, looked dispirited and listless for the first dozen games. The stunned crowd, which included his girlfriend, seven-time Wimbledon champion Steffi Graf, was mostly silent. "He came out firing on all cylinders," Agassi said. "He was returning my serve not only well, but very deep. I needed a little help from him at 5-2 down. I was very lucky to get back into that match. ... I didn't think there was a whole lot of hope left." Martin, who turns 30 next week, felt he was controlling the play, but he knew "the tide can turn very quickly." It did. Up two breaks and serving for the match at 5-2, Martin double-faulted to 30-40 when he risked a big second serve instead of playing it safe. "I said, 'Let's be aggressive with it,'" Martin said. "I remember that's the thing I struggled with most a few years ago. I was aggressive with it, and I didn't make it. Sort of live by the risks, die by the risks." It was a crucial point as Agassi greeted the next, somewhat weaker, serve with a crisp return down the line for the break to 5-3. "I didn't think he was crazy when he missed that," Agassi said of Martin's attempt at a second-serve ace. "I thought something was wrong with him when he was making those for five sets. You've got to walk that line between staying offensive but not playing too risky. He took a shot and hit a bad serve. I don't blame him there." Agassi still faced plenty of trouble as he double-faulted twice in the next game and soon found himself staring at his first match point. Martin wasted that chance by netting a return. Five points later, after another double-fault set up a second match point, Agassi escaped with a backhand volley as Martin stood on the baseline. Once again Martin served for the match at 5-4, but instead of pressing the attack, he withered under the pressure. A weak, fluttering second serve enabled Agassi to jump on the ball as he put Martin in a hole at love-30. Three points later Agassi won the game after two tentative shots and a backhand long by Martin. The match was tied now at 5-5, but hardly a soul in Centre Court, from the players to the fans in the upper seats, could not tell that the momentum had shifted and it was only a matter of time before Agassi would prevail. "Once one of those breaks goes, the other guy can't help but feel a little bit of a boost," Martin said. "Also, it's tough for the server to come back if, in fact, he has to serve again and play a good game with those vivid memories." Agassi had never played a match that went to extra games in the fifth set, but he played this one as if the pressure meant nothing. To Martin's credit, he regained his composure and didn't yield easily, holding serve until the 18th game when he began ominously with a double-fault. When Agassi set up double match point at 15-40 on another unforced error by Martin, there would be no hesitation on Agassi's part. He pummeled a forehand into the corner in the next rally, and Martin dumped it into the net, ending a match that lasted 3 hours, 46 minutes over two days.
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