There’s Andre Agassi, and there’s not exactly.
On Thursday night at the Mercedes-Benz Cup, Agassi displayed
some of the skills that have helped him to 801 career victories and
58 career singles titles. On the way, he showed 23-year-old
Frenchman Julien Benneteau what it’s like to face a
legend.
Benneteau put up a valiant effort; there’s no doubt about
that. But when he was good, the top-seeded Agassi was just a little
bit better, a little bit faster, a little bit stronger. Agassi
turned a close match into something of a rout Thursday night,
cruising into the quarterfinals with a 7-6(4), 6-2 victory in front
of a packed house at the Los Angeles Tennis Center.
“I had to hang in there and dictate the play when I had a
chance,” Agassi said.
There just weren’t too many chances early. Agassi did come
up with a break in the first set to go up 4-2, but Benneteau broke
right back, showing tremendous resolve and shot-making ability in
the process.
But tiebreakers are the stuff legends are made of. Agassi seemed
to noticeably raise his game in the first-set tiebreaker, and
Benneteau simply couldn’t rise to meet the three-time
Mercedes-Benz Cup champion.
“With him, you are always under pressure,” Benneteau
said. “It’s a big difference with him and other
players.”
And if Benneteau thought the tiebreaker was tough, he seemed to
be caught squarely on the chin when Agassi stepped things up even
further in the second set.
On the first point of the second set, Agassi hit an unbelievable
drop shot, absolutely unreachable for Benneteau, who was playing
far back on the baseline in his service game. Then Agassi seemed to
want to outdo himself, so he hit another drop shot on the next
point, this one better than the first. Agassi said later that an
effective drop shot can force an opponent to start thinking more,
and it also forces them to step in from the baseline.
“It serves a great purpose,” Agassi said. “And
if you can win the point, it makes it that much better.”
Agassi went on to win the next two points, hold serve, and
repeat the process. Before Benneteau knew what hit him, he was down
4-0 in the set, doomed to become No. 801 in the record books.
“He was more aggressive (in the second set),”
Benneteau said. “For me it was very hard to stay at that
level.”
But it would have been hard for anyone. Agassi appeared to move
well throughout the match, and he said afterward that he
wasn’t bothered at all by his recent injuries, particularly
his hip that forced him to withdraw from Wimbledon.
Agassi is through to the quarterfinals for the eighth time in
his nine Mercedes-Benz Cup appearances. He will face Tommy Haas in
the next round, and from there, no one really knows what the future
holds for Agassi.
He seemed genuinely happy and relieved to win Thursday night.
Maybe it was more that he wasn’t bothered by injuries rather
than being excited at beating Benneteau. Each pain-free match is a
positive sign for the 34-year-old, but he won’t speculate
much on his plans leading up to the US Open.
“A guy like me can’t have many plans these
days,” he said.
But so far this week, things have gone exactly according to
plan.