 |
| |
|
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
||||||||||||||
|
Agassi drops set in win, mum on debate Posted: Tuesday June 24, 2003 4:19 PMLONDON (Reuters) - Andre Agassi, seeking his second Wimbledon title 11 years after his first, negotiated the first hurdle on Tuesday with a 6-4 6-0 5-7 6-4 victory over stubborn British wildcard Jamie Delgado. A lively Centre Court crowd, basking in warm sunshine hardly knew who to support -- the entertaining, top-ranked, 33-year-old American on his 13th visit to the championships or the plucky Briton, 458 in the world and with no real hope of advancing. In the end they cheered both. Agassi busied himself along the Centre Court baseline, taking the first set with a big serve in 33 minutes and the second with an ace in barely 20. "I play with a sense of urgency," he said. "I feel like I'm always worried," Delgado, 26, raised his game in the third set and took advantage of momentary lapses from the eight-times grand slam champion to steal it with a delicate lob. "I came up against a guy who was putting up some good resistance out there...certainly he put me to the test," the world number one said. The Briton's joy was short-lived. Agassi broke Delgado's serve in the fifth game and finished the job with an ace, last of 16 he thumped down in the match, in two hours flat. Before packing his rackets Agassi bowed several times and blew kisses to the crowd. "For me at this stage in my career it's quite a feeling to be out there," Agassi, whose latest grand slam triumph was at the Australian Open in January. "You never really know how many chances you're going to get again. As I get older I have more capacity to embrace these moments," he added. He said he also had to work really hard to earn such moments. "To be number one now to me is a phenomenal accomplishment. You don't have to just play well you have to play well and a lot and that's not so easy for me anymore," he said. With the early departure of Lleyton Hewitt in the first round on Monday, Agassi is seeded to win the tournament, but he smiled: "Just getting through the first one is the highest priority. I did that today." 'Respectful' Agassi refuses to discuss boycottLONDON (Reuters) -- Andre Agassi refused to be drawn into the Wimbledon boycott debate on Tuesday, saying he had too much respect for the grasscourt grand slam. The world's leading players could stay away from Wimbledon in 2004 and instead play a specially arranged charity tournament unless the slam coughs up more cash for prize money. The specter of a players' boycott emerged after a meeting between around 120 players at the All England Club on the eve of the tournament. Agassi attended Saturday night's meeting, but on Tuesday said: "There's no question that discussions are going on. "[But] the specifics of it, to be quite honest for me, aren't something that I would prefer to talk about in Wimbledon's back yard. "I mean, I have too much respect for these championships. "I can see the game of tennis benefiting from a lot of changes, to be quite honest. But I come down on it choosing not to talk about it in Wimbledon's back yard. "These championships are incredible and we're all privileged and honored to be here," the 1992 champion said. Disappointed organizers Wimbledon organizers said on Monday they were disappointed by a threat from leading men players to stay away. "I must admit it's a bit of a disappointing way to start the 117th Wimbledon championships," Chris Gorringe, chief executive of the All England Club, said. "We feel that we do pay very fair and reasonable prize money, infinitely more than any of the other tournaments around the world other than the other three grand slams." However, many players may choose to stay away unless disagreements between the players and the slams are smoothed over. "If the players ended up being left in a position, which we hope very much will not be the case, where the economic value of the position of the grand slams is simply not going to be fairly shared, then the players' alternative would be to play elsewhere," ATP chief Mark Miles said following Saturday night's meeting. The men argue they should receive a larger share of the profits from the highly lucrative grand slams. The slams say that they already plough millions of dollars of profits back into grass roots tennis in their host countries. Sticking point It is becoming a major sticking point. The four slams -- Wimbledon plus the Australian, French and U.S. Opens -- believe players are already paid extremely well and have already thrown out a request for more cash at the French Open earlier this month. It is an issue which must be resolved if Wimbledon is to avoid a first boycott since 1973 when 81 men withdrew following the suspension of Yugoslav player Nikki Pilic for failing to play a Davis Cup match. Miles spoke of proceeding on "two parallel tracks" one being the continued negotiations. "We're committed to that, and at the same time, we're going to proceed on a second track, and we're going to move forward to organize other alternatives, so we're prepared for any contingency," he said. "That doesn't mean there is a specific plan to do something else. The players' priority is to stay at the table and work out reasonable ways to address all the issues. Four slams All four grand slams could be hit by a boycott, but the French Open and Wimbledon seem the most likely to suffer. Earlier this week the U.S. Open announced a prize money increase at what is already the world's most lucrative sporting event. The new total purse of $17,074,000 remains the highest of any tennis event, $3 million more than the closest non-tennis event and for the first time in grand slam history, both the men's and women's singles champions will receive a record $1 million. At this year's Wimbledon the men's singles champion will receive 575,000 pounds ($960,500) and the women's champion 535,000 pounds ($893,700). More meetings between the ATP and Grand Slam officials are scheduled through the Wimbledon fortnight.
Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. |
|
||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||
