(INTERMISSION...

there was a strange scene in the movie "a beautiful mind" where faculty members at princeton u approached the table of john nash (russel crowe) in the cafeteria and one by one laid down their fountain pens on the table to form a straight line. it was some kind of academic ritual at the school to declare to the unknowing "awardee" of his selection for the nobel prize, and nash, as the movie tells us, had just been awarded the economics prize for his so-called game theory. watching that scene in the moviehouse some 5 years ago, if my memory serves me right, was the last time - prior to 2:30 this afternoon - that i cried.

this afternoon i unconsciously cried again, with a thin film of tear coming from my duct probably intending to clear my eye, if not my soul, into seeing faithfully what was being shown on the tv screen: andre agassi doing his customary four-sided bow and kiss before, and to, his adoring crowd for the last time.

like any tennis fan of my age bracket, i have seen the evolution of tennis through the years, and everytime i looked at the changing shape, hue, line and form of this sport, i cannot help but see the silhouette of andre agassi in all the changing things i see. andre's influence on the sport was so all-encompassing, because of him this game had long been removed from the abominable clutches of the aristocrat.

i have seen andre play live quite a few times already, but nothing beats - as always - the first time. it was at the then lipton open in key biscayne, march 24 1998 - my birthday, where he played against albert costa of spain (who few years therefrom was going to win the french open) and it was that moment when i had become the biggest sports fan of any sport that i ever was.

have you ever seen chito loyzaga play in person? or nora aunor sing in person? or lolita rodriguez act in person? the reason i ask these is because, like andre, seeing them do their thing on tv is so unexplainably different from seeing them do the same things in person. it was probably their aura, or electrifying presence, or the artificiality of the tv's magnetic waves so far removed from their actual personality that you seem to see a totality different celebrity. and andre was that. he was not powerful, not very quick, his serve speed was average, but you knew that like a smart lawyer who was aware of winning the case in the library rather than in the courtroom, he always had a gameplan, the x's and the o's representing the weaknesses of his opponent at his command and he showed these through his strokes, and ball placings, and footwork, and wrist breaks, or even the way he shifted his body weight from one side to the other.

there are a few things that are considered most difficult in the difficult world of sports, like hitting a changeup pitch in baseball, or returning a 135 mph tennis serve "to the body". andre is considered the best returner in tennis history, so good in fact that my brother told me his return of serve is so much a powerful weapon as the serve itself; and in turn i told him that andre's eyesight was so sharp that if he were a baseball player he could probably determine a changeup pitch by the shape of the baseball stitch as it comes towards him at the plate.

but i like what andy roddick said: of all the good things andre did all these 21 years, we have yet to see the best he could do to mankind.

so, good luck andre, i could almost hear the words of montaigne coming from your mouth while you made the 4-sided bow this afternoon: God grants me cold according to my cloth, and passions proportionable to the means i have to withstand them: nature having laid me open on the one side, has covered me on the other; having disarmed me of strength, she has armed me with insensibility that is regular.

go on sir and conquer the other fields of life. like the tennis of your past, evolve them, and from those new fileds, give us the pleasure of the 4 sided bow and kiss. and then we'll all scream...

advantage, agassi!)