Tennis: Age Holds All the Aces to Beat Rusedski and Agassi

There was never a huge likelihood that Greg Rusedski's French Open would extend much beyond the first couple of days, and so it proved when for the fourth time in his last five visits to Roland Garros he was beaten in the opening round yesterday.

Andre Agassi, so famously the champion here in 1999, had been expected to last a touch longer, but age and injury ran in cruel tandem to halt him too at the first hurdle.

There were no bows and no kisses to the crowd in the Philippe Chatrier stadium. The 35-year-old American propped himself up on the chair, attempting to ease the pain from his sciatic nerve, and waited for Jarkko Nieminen to complete his celebrations after his 7-5, 4-6, 6-7, 6-1, 6-0 win.

"Are you staying?" Agassi gently inquired as the Finn, a qualifier, beamed and skipped. In deference to Agassi's reputation and his obvious discomfort, Nieminen scurried to join him and they duly walked off together - or limped, in Agassi's case.

The problem had begun in the third set. Last year at this stage of the season he could barely compete because of what he then believed to be a hip injury. He lost three suc cessive first-round matches at St Polten, Roland Garros and Queen's, and then pulled out of Wimbledon. "We found out that the problem was coming from the back. I feel it in the hip but it's coming from the sciatic nerve."

Now, riding to battle on the point of a hypodermic needle, Agassi will surely find it increasingly difficult to continue beyond the end of this year, with the US Open a likely ending to what has been a extraordinary career.

The best-of-five matches in particular are more and more difficult to cope with, as was proved so graphically this year when he made a much- publicised return to the United States' Davis Cup team and was embarrassingly thrashed by Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia.

By the third-set tie-break yesterday the physical pain and the mental anguish were again intense and growing ever worse. He resolutely refused to chuck in the towel.

"I almost shook hands at two sets to one but I didn't want to walk off. There was nothing the trainer could do. I'd had a cortisone injection deep in the back a few months ago, but week by week I felt it becoming less and less effective."

At the Tennis Masters Cup in 2003, after he had lost to Roger Federer in his opening round-robin match, Agassi, then 33, openly discussed the age question. "I certainly don't feel handicapped by my age. I still feel like I'm moving well and hitting my shots. So, you know, they're not beating an old guy yet - at least as far as I can feel. If you see it differently, please tell me," he said then.

Now, at 35, there are increasing signs that although the mind may continue to be willing, the body is giving up the fight. Nobody wants to see such a great player's powers so severely diminished by injury, but for most of this year Agassi hasbeen a husk of his former self, even though, remarkably, he has retained his position in the top 10. This was his 58th grand slam tournament, which constitutes a record in the Open era, and it would be sad to see him linger too long.

"Tennis is what I do, and it's given me a lot. I'll assess the necessary things at the end of the year," he said. "But I can't afford to pollute the potential of my winning matches or tournaments with sitting on the fence, with where I am, what I'm doing or why I'm doing it. You just have to put your head down and work."

Rusedski knows all about back problems, as well as the insidious advance of age. He had his chances against Brazil's Flavio Saretta before losing 6-2, 7-6, 6-3, but his serve let him down at crucial moments, notably in the tie-break when he double-faulted serving for the set. It has been the story of his year, and is symptomatic of what happens to players as they enter the twilight zone of their careers.

Those, such as Agassi, who have been at the very top can perhaps hold on to their nerve a little longer than most. Those such as Rusedski find that the big, match-turning points begin to slip through their fingers with increasing regularity.

As he approaches his 32nd birthday the British No2 remains as upbeat as ever, reaching constantly for the positive, with never a backward glance, at least in public, at the negatives now littering his every footstep. The clay is gone, and the grass, he believes, holds promise of rejuvenation. For him and Agassi, false dawns abound.