Agassi Ousts Blake in Five-Set Thriller

FLUSHING MEADOWS, N.Y.—As last night’s U.S. Open quarterfinal stretched into the wee hours of the morning, James Blake looked up at the scoreboard and smiled. His early two-set lead over Andre Agassi had dissolved into a five-set stalemate, and yet just before the final tiebreak, for the briefest of instants, Blake honored the context of his match.

He thought of Jimmy Connors in that moment—of how Connors had electrified a raucous Queens crowd on his 39th birthday, screaming into the camera, “This is what they want—this is what we’ll give them!”

More than 20,000 fans huddled in Arthur Ashe Stadium Court until past 1 a.m. this morning because they wanted something. They wanted to see the 35-year-old Agassi win (he did, capping off an improbable 3-6, 3-6, 6-3, 6-3, 7-6 (8) comeback with a blistering forehand that kissed the corner). They wanted to see Agassi fight the good fight (he did, falling down two sets and a break before chipping away at Blake’s lead). And perhaps most of all, they wanted to see for themselves that Agassi, the recent subject of rampant retirement speculation, still had that glint in his eye, that staunch refusal to concede in his stride. And he did.

“If I was in the stands,” Blake admitted, “I’d be cheering for him, too.”

Which is why Blake smiled for that moment before the tiebreak, when the scoreboard knotted with sixes and threes. He surely wasn’t smiling after he squandered his 3-0 mini-break, and when Agassi planted that forehand in the corner and clinched a spot in the semifinal, Blake’s heart did drop.

It isn’t often, though, that a competitor as fierce and fiery as Blake will admit, “I generally don’t have a lot of fun losing, but this was a lot of fun to play.”

It was billed as the match of the tournament: tennis’ loveable elder statesman versus its rising star, the 35-year-old punk-turned-family-man versus the 25-year-old Blake and his triumph-over-tragedy tale.

Flushing Meadows had embraced Blake all tournament long, devouring the stories of his broken neck, his facial paralysis and his father’s death. And though he grew up in Connecticut and attended Harvard for two years before going pro, Blake was a local son, born in Yonkers and a longtime participant in the Harlem Junior Tennis League.

But for the first time in a week and a half, Blake’s personal cheering section, “The J-Block,” was drowned out rather than augmented by the Arthur Ashe crowd. Even after Blake collected his first two sets in 62 minutes and then notched a third-set break, the stands nearly collapsed every time Agassi won a point.

At 5-3 in the third, when his ball clipped the net and took a lucky bounce out of Blake’s reach, Agassi held up his hand in modest apology, as per convention. The fans had none of it, though, and the stadium erupted.

“If Agassi wins,” one man gleefully declared to his buddy, “I’m calling in sick tomorrow.”

And after midnight, as Eric Clapton’s song of the same name blared from the speakers, the fans might as well have been at Shea Stadium across the subway podium. When Agassi broke to regain serve in the fourth set, he had to postpone his serve in the subsequent game as a wave circulated the stands.

“You could hear it in the crowd,” Blake said. Even his childhood doubles partner and J-Block member Matt Daly understood, and well before the match had even begun.

“It’s tough,” Daly said early last night, as the J-Block filmed a spot for USA network outside the Flushing Meadows fountain. “Andre’s a legend. If it was anyone but James, I’d be rooting for Andre.”

Blake broke for 3-2 in the fifth set, but when he served for the match at 5-4, Agassi evened the count, bringing the crowd to its feet again with four consecutive points. It was more of the same in the tiebreak, when Blake went up 3-1, 4-3 and 5-4 before succumbing to Agassi’s groundstrokes.

It was what the fans wanted—it was what they’d come to see—and even Blake knew that in the interview room, when he said that he was “happy to congratulate Andre, because he’s earned it.”

“Most people are never going to experience things like that,” he added, “and I wish they could.”

He wasn’t particularly thrilled at the loss, but Blake wasn’t distraught, either, as he embraced Agassi after the final point. Blake knew what he’d just had a hand in, and there was just no disagreeing with the bald, 35-year-old semifinalist when he said, “There are few moments on a tennis court that are that special.

“It’s 1:15 in the morning, and 20,000 people are still here. There’s nothing like it.”

—Staff writer Rebecca A. Seesel can be reached at seesel@fas.harvard.edu.