TENNIS MASTERS CUP

November 14, 2005

Andre Agassi

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

ANDRE AGASSI: Well, no, less than the ankle. But when you haven't played in so long, you know, I mean, I couldn't really hit balls for a couple of months because of my sprained ankle, or for a month at least. You come back, try to get ready in a hurry and you force it and things just don't respond if you try to do it too soon. Just from serving, in the last week of trying to get ready, it was just a little stiff and sore. But the movement is more of an issue.

ANDRE AGASSI: Yeah, that was probably the highlight of the match for me, unfortunately. Good opportunity to get back in the match. But you base so much on the -- you know, how the meat of the point is going, and I wasn't on top of it, you know. Where I should have been controlling the match I wasn't, and then the other areas he was even doing better still. So I just would have prolonged my agony out there.

ANDRE AGASSI: Well, I think it's probably a sign of just not playing many matches and not feeling terribly good.

ANDRE AGASSI: Yeah, it's not easy to ask it to do what I'm asking it to do. Especially on this surface, it's very sticky. It stops and everything else moves. It's hard to have confidence. Then when you try a little bit, it's still painful. You know, movement is everything. If you're not in position, you're playing high-risk. Yeah, so today was obviously taking a chance to test it out. I practiced for an hour and that's pushing it. And today, I was just getting worse. It's not ready.

ANDRE AGASSI: Well, listen, with the state of my ankle right now, there's no chance for me to be able to play again. This is -- for me to go out on the court to play like this, nobody wants to see it. It's very dangerous and risky for my future to be ready for anything in the next four or five weeks. So this is just, you know, an unfortunate setback. But for me to get on the court and to be ordinary and for my ankle to get worse as the match went on, it's not good.

ANDRE AGASSI: No, I can't play like that, absolutely. With what I'm feeling, I cannot.

ANDRE AGASSI: Listen, I came here a week ago. Coming here a week ago, I felt there was a 25% chance I would be playing. It was still very swollen. But the first few days it made good progress. But to play 35 minutes, I was starting to really feel it in practice. To play an hour, I had to stop the practice. As a few days go by, I thought, "Okay, it's 50/50, I can play." Last few days, it's arguably not getting worse, so I have to try and see and give it a chance to push through. But it has way too much effect on my movement. I'm scared to hurt it worse. It's still very painful, especially after 35, 40 minutes of being on the court. It doesn't do anybody any good for me to be out there, except for my opponents. That's it.

ANDRE AGASSI: Well, I think that's always a risk whenever you're playing with an injury. I mean, three weeks ago was very unfortunate. When I sprained my ankle, I had a third-degree sprain. It's still swollen. It's still very painful. That's when it was unfortunate. I mean, to come here and to have a chance was optimistic. You know, today was just clear for me that it's not -- I can't be on the court like that. I just can't do it. I swore I'd never do it before today, and I did it.

ANDRE AGASSI: I got to spend a week in Shanghai. This is good.

ANDRE AGASSI: Yeah, well...

ANDRE AGASSI: No. I've said this now four times. It's not possible for me to be on the court.

ANDRE AGASSI: Thank you.

ANDRE AGASSI: I just heard that tonight. That's terrible. I hope his injury is something that doesn't last very long, because, you know, it's just been terrible this year for the amount of players that haven't been ready to play here. It's probably a sign that, you know, things need to change somewhere for guys to feel better about their physical ability to get ready for a tournament this big. It's the end of a long year and it's not easy. It's very unfortunate.

ANDRE AGASSI: As you're moving and you're playing, you're not having the confidence, which is fine. I wasn't trusting it. I wasn't moving good, but it wasn't so bad I could push through. But then when you feel like it's only getting worse, not when it either stays the same or sometimes it can warm up when it keeps getting worse, and this happens after, you know, 30 minutes of tennis, it's 30 minutes of movement. But at the end of the day, even if it affects your movement a little bit, there's no chance out there. Guys play too good. This tournament is too strong. It's impossible - for me at least.

ANDRE AGASSI: Well, it's everybody's choice when they play. Ultimately there's penalties and it's not easy when your opponents are playing. The schedule of the year is a difficult one and requires lots of adjustment, and you do not have much off time and all that. I try to make my own decisions that keep me healthier. But the physicality of the game is also getting more, you know. It's too difficult for guys to run as hard as they do over and over again, you know. The ball's faster. Guys are stronger. The movement is much more violent now. So this means the potential of more injuries, you know. So maybe somewhere as athleticism of the game improves, maybe there has to be some adjustments that make it possible for guys to go 100% all season and then have some time. But it's too bad it happens here, you know. I mean, Shanghai deserves more than this, to have so many players not be here, if China does as well as the game does. This is a big tournament and should have everybody here and healthy, and it doesn't. That's very sad.

ANDRE AGASSI: Well, I mean, giving up is relative. You're still hoping for something good to happen. It's very easy to get discouraged and to not have much hope. Again, the areas of the match that I should have been controlling; I wasn't. I wasn't in position. I was playing very high-risk tennis because of my movement. He's too good for that.

ANDRE AGASSI: Yeah, I just came down on my foot on the movement and rolled over and snapped it to the floor. I mean, it was a third-degree sprain, which, you know, sprains are in one, two and three levels, depending on how many ligaments are damaged. All three of mine were torn, had tears. Ankle was swollen. I couldn't walk for, you know, 12 days. Tried to rehabilitate quickly. Came here with very low expectation of being healthy, but as I practiced the first few days it improved. Okay, I thought maybe if I tape it and I support it, maybe I can push through, but I couldn't, you know. But the foot went to the outside and down. So on the outside, three ligaments were gone and on the inside I had the compression of the bone hitting bone. So I have a bone bruise on the inside, on the inside of my foot, which is actually more of a pain than the outside.

ANDRE AGASSI: No, my back is okay. But, you know, what I do is I have to figure it out now. I mean, I don't know the best way to get my ankle healthy. I have some time. The most important thing is that it's healthy for next year because this year's over with. Most likely I'll leave, go back to my family, and try to get healthy soon so I can continue my preparation for another year.

ANDRE AGASSI: I think there's areas where it's important the players have a stronger say but there's a lot of areas where it's important that they don't. You know, doing things right requires a lot of sacrifice from each party, and it's understanding and accepting that sacrifice and leading the way with a short-term cost for a long-term gain. I think any time everybody's together to work this out is ideal. But, you know, you just can't stick a bunch of people in the room to talk about it. Somebody or something has to truly represent the better interest of this sport or else it will never move as a unit. We all have opinions, and we all think we're right, but it's important for there to be resolve in the direction that we're going, and that's not going to happen by trying to appease everybody's opinion. I'm not sure. It certainly starts with communication, but I'm not convinced that everybody trying to represent themselves is the best way for it to happen.

ANDRE AGASSI: Well, yeah, it makes me feel very good that people will be disappointed that I've lost every time I've come to Shanghai. You know, I mean, that's some consolation to have that support. But nothing removes the disappointment of not being able to play at my best or have success here, you know. This is not just an important tournament; it's an important area of the world, and one that I think the game can benefit a lot from. So, you know, I'm sorry for four ordinary performances. It's not what I hoped for.

ANDRE AGASSI: So the question is he's young and injured, is that a concern?

ANDRE AGASSI: Well, yeah, you know, listen, Nadal is a great talent, and he has for sure raised the bar for how players need to approach this game, you know. It's a very physical game. But he's writing checks that you only hope his body can cash. He plays very hard every single point. You hope he can stay healthy. But it is a lot of wear and tear. A great career not only takes what he has, but it also takes some luck too, you know. You have to be healthy.

ANDRE AGASSI: Well, it's a difficult surface. I think, you know, it's always good to have a court that represents -- a tournament that represents an entire year of success. The top eight should have a court that allows that sort of a compromise between all of them: if you want to play up, you want to play back, you want to play high, you want to play fast. I mean, this is what the court should be, you know. It's definitely a court that's going to favor some players over another. It's difficult also to move on. Some of these indoor courts are, you know, but this one especially. The surface in Paris, in Bercy, is the same. The surface in Basel is the same. It's very difficult on the body because your feet stick, you know, when you move.