Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras crossed a threshold at the Australian Open, coming of age in different ways and evolving into a 1990s version of the Jimmy Connors-John McEnroe rivalry.
As talented and fiercely competitive as their predecessors, and far more civil, Agassi and Sampras are turning into the tennis duo of the decade.Agassi won Sunday's match 4-6, 6-1, 7-6 (8-6), 6-4, and is in position to snatch Sampras' No. 1 ranking in the coming months after dropping as low as No. 32 a year ago following wrist surgery.
The winner of Wimbledon in 1992, the U.S. Open last summer, and now the Australian, Agassi's next goal is to win the French Open and become the first American to complete a career Grand Slam since Don Budge did it all in one year in 1938.
Agassi, 24, finally showed a grown-up commitment to fulfilling his tennis potential, winning the tournament from which he always played hooky, and handling himself with poise on and off the court. His shorn hair added to his look of maturity, but the difference from his early days in the way he played and acted went beyond a superficial change of image.
Sampras, 23, revealed the depth of his character, serving aces through his tears, struggling back from two sets down twice and yielding only in the final when the physical and emotional strain became too much against a player of Agassi's caliber.
The magnificent final, featuring 28 aces by the defending champion Sampras and stunning groundstrokes by Agassi, wasn't the best match of the tournament.
That was in the quarterfinals when Sampras and former two-time winner Jim Courier engaged in a five-set struggle that will rank among the most memorable matches in history for its quality of play and heart-wrenching drama. The sight of Sampras sobbing for his coach, Tim Gullikson, who suffered symptoms of a third stroke in four months, will be the enduring image of this Australian Open.
After losing in the final, Sampras choked back tears when he spoke to the crowd about Gullikson, who became dizzy and lost his speech and vision for half a day the first week of the tournament.
"I just want to let him know I keep thinking about him and that I wish he was here," Sampras said, wiping his eyes. "I've been praying for him the last couple of weeks."
Agassi praised Sampras' courage in playing through the emotional stress of Gullikson's illness.
"I have to say what I witnessed Pete do in the past two weeks, with the difficulties about his coach, his courage on the court and off the court is absolutely inspiring," Agassi said. "We can all learn from what he did. He's a class act. I think he's shown these past couple of weeks why he is No. 1 in the world."
Gullikson watched the match at home in Wheaton, Ill., after being discharged for the weekend from the University of Illinois at Chicago Medical Center. More tests were scheduled Monday.
The Australian final will be memorableas the match when Agassi achieved the status that Sampras has occupied for the past two years: the main man in tennis. The way he's playing, and the way the computer rankings are set up, Agassi is likely to jump from No. 2 to No. 1 even before he goes after the only major title to elude him - the French Open - in May.
"If he stays fit," Sampras said, "he's a threat to win every major tournament of the year.
"The game has been missing a rivalry, and with Andre and me it could result in a great rivalry. Our games are very different and we are very different. If we're playing in Grand Slams like we did here, that's great for the game. Andre is one guy who puts tennis on the front page of sports pages, and I think tennis needs that."
At the end Sunday, Agassi was still springing around the court, pounding shots with all his weight behind every stroke. Sampras had lost his bounce, his legs dead from 18 tough sets in one week.
The hotter the better for Agassi, who dictated play from the backcourt and made Sampras work harder. Agassi also had the luck of the draw, a couple of qualifiers to start, straight-set matches up to the final. Sampras had to slog past Magnus Larsson, Courier and Michael Chang.
"It was the hottest day in quite some time, and it was humid," Sampras said. "The matches that I've played over the past couple of weeks definitely took their toll. But that's not an excuse. He basically outplayed me."
Sampras played as aggressively as his weary and aching body would allow, going for the lines, the angles, the subtleties of drop shots - anything to get a point over quickly.
"I'm not going to outrally Andre," Sampras said. "He's probably one of the best guys in the world in groundstroke confrontations. I'm not going to beat him doing that. I need to come in, I need to go for winners, I need to mix it up. I can't just hang back with him and wait for him to make the first big shot. I need to be the guy who does it. As a result, I made a lot of errors and I also hit a number of winners. But it was not enough today."