Weekend Crisis Center, 10.28

'Morning. Today we have three ATP finals to look forward to (Roger Federer versus Jarkko Nieminen in Basel, Andy Murray versus Fernando Verdasco in St. Petersburg, and an all-French final, Sebastien Grosjean against Marc Gicquel, in Lyon. In Linz, Patty Schnyder faces Daniela Hantuchova in the sole WTA tour final being staged today, with Hantuchova leading by a set and a break as I write.

Meanwhile, the action in Paris, in the final men's Masters Series event of the year, begins for real, and it looks as if most of the big names will be there this year. While the final qualifying round is still to be played, there's a Sunday start in Bercy, with David Nalbandian taking on Nicolas Almagro, and Gilles Simon to face Potito Starace - it's not clear whether this will be televised, however.

The race for Shanghai is still alive - the latest news being that David Ferrer has qualified in sixth place on his current 425 points - but there are two berths still open. Players from 7th through to 14th in the race are not playing today, but Andy Murray, currently in 15th place, could surge to 11th in the race if he takes the title in St Petersburg today, by adding another 15 points to his current total of 311. That would leave him only three points behind Tommy Haas, currently number eight in the race. The ATP website has a useful breakdown of the current Race standings.

Pete is back tomorrow, and Ed McGrogan will have his Monday Net Post up, so today's nostalgic picture is the last for a while - I'll probably pick up on this theme again in the future, and have saved all the ideas that were suggested by the Tribe.

Earlier in the week, we had a picture of Goran Ivanisevic and Pat Rafter after their 2001 Wimbledon final. Today I decided to include a picture of one of Goran's conquerors in an earlier final - Andre Agassi, in 1992, just after the final point was played. At the final moment, Agassi was running along the baseline to pick up a volley from Ivanisevic, but it went into the net, and Agassi allowed his momentum to carry him to his knees, as we see him here. Eventually, he fell onto his stomach, covering his eyes to let the tears come.

Then after lying there for a few seconds, Agassi stood up, covered his eyes again, and held his head, looking stunned. He waved to the crowd, and then moved towards the net. Goran had climbed over it to embrace him, and give his congratulations to the victor. Goran, with Croatia in the throes of former Yugoslavia's civil war, had hoped to win as an inspiration to his country, but he coped with his disappointment with exceptional grace.

This was Andre's first Grand Slam win, and also came at a tournament that he had avoided for several years earlier in his career, fron 1988-1990, and at a time when many observers of the game were beginning to give up on him. The scoreline that day was 6-7 (8-10), 6-4, 6-4, 1-6, 6-4. The first thing that Mike Agassi was reported as saying to his son when they spoke on the phone after the final was "Why did you lose the fourth set?". Agassi's parents watched the final from their home in Las Vegas, and although Mike Agassi later said that they cried when Andre won, it seems that he still felt that some tough love was in order.

Goran's day eventually came. And that evening, back in 1992, another famous image was taken at the Wimbledon Champion's Dinner, of Andre standing next to the 1992 Ladies' Singles Champion, his future second wife, Steffi Graf. I don't know that it's "iconic", but I thought a few of you might like to see it again.

-- Rosangel