Agassi vs. Ilie
by Prip
The match between Andre Agassi and Andrew Ilie turned out to be an extremely
entertaining battle, with Andrew showcasing his incredible strength
and extraordinary shot-making ability, hitting unbelievable shots at the
drop of a hat. Absolutely blasting the ball from both sides,
complimenting his explosive one-handed backhand with a double-grunt
that sounded somewhat like a hard cough or bark, Andrew played
superhuman tennis, hitting amazing winners even on the full defense.
Andre could hardly believe the shots that his opponent was coming up
with, and actually lost 5 straight points in the first set tie-breaker,
finally holding serve before losing the 'breaker 7-1.
Watched by girlfriend Marlene Weingartner, Andrew must have felt
pretty much invincible. He couldn't keep the high level of tennis
going, though, and started to miss early in the second set. Andre
himself had a huge change of tactic. Instead of trying to out-rally
his opponent, Andre bided his time, and actually played a rather
defensive game rather than play aggressively. With Andrew's shots
being practically impossible to read, Andre played a remarkable game
mentally in that he had a mere split-second to react to what Andrew
threw at him, and yet had to do something with the ball as to not
totally compromise his position on court. But Andre, with all his
experience, came out a class act, and handled the whole situation
marvelously.
Andrew continued to play the best way he knew, hitting out hard and
running after ever ball. Playing fearless tennis, he was left to do
all the work on the court, coming up with the plays and basically
making things happen. Facing break point at 0-2 down in the third
set, Andrew came up with a never-before-seen gem: a huge double-handed
swinging volley with the ball coming at his feet. And the shot left
Agassi absolutely dumbfounded, staring at the ball go past beyond his
reach and land well inside for a winner. Similarly, facing break
point at 0-4 two games later, Andrew hit a huge one-handed backhand
volley with the ball below his knees, standing nearer to the service
line than the baseline, for yet another winner.
With such extraordinary shots, the errors would sooner or later
have to come, and come they did. With Andre playing the percentages
well and not forcing the play at all, Andrew went for too much, and
ended up making the mistakes. Agassi advances 6-7, 6-3, 6-0, 6-3. All
in all, one of the most exciting matches of the tournament so far,
and certainly an encouraging match for the Romanian-born Aussie.
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Last updated 26 September 2015
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