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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. |