Nadal's time has come
By ERIC DUHATSCHEK, Globe and Mail Update
August 14th, 2005
Montreal It was billed as "La Guerre des generations" the generation battle between the newest sensation in tennis, Spanish teen Rafael Nadal, and one of the sport's enduring legends, American Andre Agassi.
Youth was served usually with lots of pace and mostly, all over the service court but in the end, the 19-year-old Nadal had an answer for everything the 35-year-old Agassi sent his way.
In a seesaw match that featured two definitive momentum swings and a 58-minute rain delay after the first set, Nadal won his ninth ATP title of the season and his first-ever on a hard court, by defeating Agassi 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 in Sunday's final of the $2.45-million (U.S.) Rogers Cup tennis tournament.
The match between two crowd-pleasing players had been much anticipated all week. As soon as second-seeded Lleyton Hewitt and third-seeded Andy Roddick were eliminated in the first round, the 19-year-old Nadal talked about his wish to play the 35-year-old Agassi once before he retired.
Agassi himself suggested he didn't know what to make of Nadal's comments they were clearly made out of respect because retirement isn't in his immediate plans.
Nor should it be, based on his strong play this week.
Agassi was coming off a win two weekends ago in Los Angeles (against admittedly a weaker field) and had little trouble playing his way through a strong field that featured 16 of the top 20 players in the world.
Tactically, Agassi tried to attack the young Spaniard's two-handed backhand, especially in the early stages of the match.
The problem was, Nadal usually found a way to respond. Sometimes, he served himself out of trouble. Mostly, he just kept getting one more ball back, over and over again, waiting for Agassi to commit an error. Nadal is just so athletic and covers ground so well that he could just stay in the point and force Agassi to go for more on every stroke.
In the end, a handful of unforced errors proved to Agassi's his undoing.
Nadal won the first set going away, but Agassi came back well after the rain delay and won his serve easily throughout the second set. Agassi forced a third set by breaking Nadal's serve at 4-5 prompting a standing ovation from the centre-court crowd at Stade Uniprix, who were clearly in the mood for more tennis.
Agassi carried the momentum over into his first service game of the final set, winning it easily, but that was as good as it would get for him. Nadal got over his momentary lapse of nerve, breaking Agassi's serve twice more to win the match going away.
The 16-year age differential between the two was the largest in an ATP final since a 1979 tournament in Tel Aviv featuring a 35-year-old Tom Okker (of the Netherlands) and a 19-year-old Per Hjertquist (of Sweden).
Afterwards, Agassi joked that he was happy to play Nadal once "before he retired" and then told the crowd "I'll see you in two years."
For his part, Nadal said: "Today, Andre has a little bit of bad luck."
Yes, he had the bad luck to run into the hottest player on the tour, at the moment. This was Nadal's ATP-best 10th final appearance of the season and his ninth title overall, matching Mats Wilander's 1983 record for most titles by a teenager in a season. The last teenager to win in Canada was American Michael Chang in 1990, who was 18 years, five months at the time.
This was also Nadal's third Masters Series title of the season, tying Switzerland's Roger Federer, who also has three this season.
Agassi, meanwhile, lost for the first time in a Canadian final, after previously going 3-0.
The tournament established an attendance record when 172,686 came through the turnstiles, breaking the mark of 157,388 set two years ago.
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