AGASSI AND WILLIAMS, A...SERENE VICTORY
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A return from oblivion and a dreamed-of goal. A confirmation and a great surprise. Apart from one thing in common, their American nationality, there are no many points of contact between the two winners of the US Open 1999. Indeed, Andrè Agassi and Serena Williams have different athletic stories. Maybe the story of the younger of the two sisters grown up in the Los Angeles ghetto is too recent to be compared with that of the 29 years-old Las Vegas player. What is certain is that this is a moment of glory for both players. A glory to be savoured and carefully enjoyed because of a number of valid reasons, even though different.
With his triumph in New York, but also in Paris in June, Agassi leaves behind him a couple of obscure years, in terms of sport and also humanly. After the breakup of his marriage with actress Broke Shields, Andrè has decided to embrace again his first love, the racket. He had fallen well beyond the 100th place in the world ranking, being too busy in keeping up to the rhythms of his beautiful partner, which were certainly not fit for an athlete like him. Given this very bad position, the former Wimbledon champion was even forced to play minor tournaments where the players themselves had to change the scoreboard during changeovers. His coach Brad Gilbert, a friend rather than a counsellor or a strategist, given the talent of Agassi, found no other way than that of contrasting the figure of Andrè's wife. He then convinced Andrè that his world was the tennis field, where he would never bask in somebody's glory. With Shields always touring the USA for her work and the new Agassi again at the research of the first world position, it was taken for granted that their relationship would not last for a long time. But Agassi was able to look forward, firmly convinced that his talent would be wasted even if he would only have reached the second place in world ranking. Therefore we saw him crying on the Roland Garros field after having won, a few months ago, the only Slam title he still had to conquer. But at that point his motivations grew increasingly stronger. Indeed, the fact of having managed to become one of the only 5 tennis players in the world able to win all the Major competitions (a goal, just to give you an idea, contemporary players like Connors, Borg, McEnroe, Lendl and Sampras have not been able to reach) was not enough for him. He then went to New York, curiously the place where his love story shared with Broke and tennis had the last and maybe only climax in 1994. There he won a tournament where he was the great favourite, after the early exclusion of Sampras and Rafter for physical problems. And now together with the cup he tastes again the thrill of being the world number one, the strongest player of 1999 and also a champion again after so many misfortunes.
"If someone in 1997 would have told me that this year I would have played three consecutive finals of the Slam (at Wimbledon he was beated by Sampras) winning two of them, I would have suggested him to give up taking drugs as soon as possible."
Instead, a man who has never doubted his daugthers' skills, even at the cost of seeming a braggart, is Richard Williams, father of Venus and Serena, who at the eve of the Open tournament had predicted a final between his two daughters. Yet, this turned out to be only half true but the Open ended with a great surprise. Martina Hingis, the world number one, had fought back with great skill the attack from Venus, the older sister, managing to win a match the Los Angeles black player had played in the way she preferred, i.e. in the long run. Despite Serena's victory in the other semifinal over Davenport, few people would have bet that the younger Williams sister would succeed in winning over Hingis in the final. Serena played her first final in a Slam tournament, before her public, and maybe she was also satisfied with a goal she had never reached before. What is more, Venus, who has always won over her sister, had not physically worn out the little Swiss player. Serena's mind was not affected by these worries and psychological influences for more than an hour, until when the imminent victory forced her to come out of the athletic trance. However, it was too late for Hingis, who was weakened after the long match with Venus, and was therefore an unconscious victim of the "team play" of the two sisters, who now in perspective, given their young age, have given rise to a very interesting rivalry in the tennis world.

 

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