One for the Ages

Another amazing display of guts. Another astounding display of tennis. For 21 years now Andre Agassi has been treating us tennis fans to a show.

OK, maybe not for 21 years; that's just the length of his career. But for a good number of years Andre has been showing us what it means to be a champion and what it means to be a man.

Yeah, sure, he started out as the brash, "image is every thing" court smart-ass, but over the years, we have watched him grow from that young kid into quite a man. He has won over $30 million in his career. What do you do when you're rich? Well, if you're part of the George Bush set, you hoard your money, only using it to make more money or to buy power; you become the ugly American at home personified. If you're Andre Agassi however, you use your fortune to help those less fortunate than you.

You start and personally fund the Andre Agassi College Preparatory Academy. That's a long way from marrying Brooke Shields. But I digress.

In the last tournament of his career Andre has now put on two exhibitions of tennis magic, two stunning three-and-half-hour-plus displays of the intelligence of the mature player defeating the strength and energy of the young. If you haven't been watching the US Open, you've been missing history.

But it's not too late. Agassi takes the court again in the third round on Saturday. Can he do it again? Can his agonizing back hold together one more time? Can it hold together five more times to get him into the finals? Only time will tell, but I think the 23,000 who watched him last night in New York are all rooting for it.

I know I am.