Columnist Dean Juipe: Agassi guilty of passing on misleading message or two

Dean Juipe

Wednesday, June 16, 2004 | 9:28 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4084.

Andre Agassi dropped out of the Wimbledon tennis tournament Tuesday, citing a lingering hip injury that has sabotaged his career for the past two months. Yet a mere three weeks ago he told a reporter he was in perfect health.

An obvious rationale: Agassi manufactured the injury excuse not only as a means of explaining his poor play of late, but of covering his lack of confidence going into a prestigious tournament that begins next Monday.

For the time being at least, he'd rather not play.

And at 34 years old and with an array of outside interests and family concerns, his days as an active player may very well be numbered.

Having played professionally since he was 16 and having won 54 tournaments and having achieved the rare distinction of winning a career Grand Slam, he's entitled to quit any time he desires. But he really has no reason to send out mixed signals, as he has done within the past month.

"I'm eager, I'm going to be in great shape," Agassi told a USA Today reporter in an article that appeared May 24 and in advance of the French Open. "My body's holding out better than I ever could have hoped.

"I feel like I have a new (tennis) life coming."

Yet that optimism has since been tempered by three first-round losses and a statement attributed to Agassi that was released Tuesday in London.

"I have been struggling with a hip injury for the past couple of months," it read in part, going on to include his apology for withdrawing from Wimbledon.

Hip injury ... hang nail ... whatever ailment Agassi wants to claim is interfering with his game is just as apt to be the result of losing three successive matches to players who are all but completely unknown. While it seemed to be a fluke when he was beaten in the first round of the French Open by No. 277 Jerome Haehnel, that loss began a pattern that now also includes first-round losses to No. 339 Nanad Zimonjic at St. Poelten, Austria, and to unseeded Igor Andreev at last week's Queen's Club tournament in London.

Agassi is 14-7 in singles play this year, with his best showing coming in the Australian Open when he reached the quarterfinal round. His world ranking is in decline and he would have been no better than a sixth seed at Wimbledon.

For the first time since his fabled slump in 1997 when he dropped to No. 141 late in the year, he has lost in the first round three consecutive times.

Agassi is not a guy who deserves or merits criticism on any front, so any of us who have followed his career and appreciated his accomplishments can hope for is that he'll officially retire at the appropriate time rather than linger and be forced into concocting excuses.

One of only five men to own a career Grand Slam, a husband and father of two, a socialite and a benefactor with extensive ties to Las Vegas, Agassi doesn't need tennis to stay busy. He has his kids, his Andre Agassi Preparatory Academy, and a second home in Tiburon, Calif., that's on the market for $24.5 million to occupy his time.

Why bother with tennis at all?