Agassi: But before we get to him, let's pause a moment to appreciate MRS. Agassi -- hoofah. She is looking fine these days -- a little make-up, some blowdrying -- and wow. Age is "serving" her well -- harhar.

Anyway, I made myself watch the entire match against "Bombs over Baghdatis". First off, the Cypriot played better and yet worse than expected. He showed really solid groundstrokes and his shot selection was decent. His first serve is also very good. Yet, as Johnny Mac said last night, he was playing a bit lazy (or maybe it's his conditioning) and wasn't taking the extra step a lot of the time to get to the ball which would result in half-assed "gets" at times. Moreover, he had a woeful second serve -- he was only winning around 35% of his points of the 2nd serve**, which is simply not going to do it against the premiere return man of the ages (still). Ultimately it may have been his cramps that did him in -- which is no excuse when you're 21 and playing a guy who is 36 (!)

Agassi was a gamer. He did what he had to do, although he nearly blew it up 3-0 in the 4th and then gets broken twice to lose the set (this with the entire stadium save 5 screaming for you [did I mention the hot wife??]). His serves were nice and flat, his pacing and selection of his groundstrokes kept Bag-boy off his game just enough to flatten the edge of age and power. Andre did not show any ill effects of his back, but then again, it was only the second round. He's playing better tennis than expected, and perhaps rightfully so given that it's his swansong. I have to admit I was a little upset when it looked like he might lose. I wanted him gone in the first round, or else to make it to the finals. Losing in the 4th round just has no poetry about it.

Good luck Andre.

**In honor of Eno's love for DFW, here's a footnote: For more on the perils on having a crappy second serve, see Hingis, Martina##. She got CUH-rushed last night by a middling opponent who capitalized on Martina's namby-pamby service game.

##Here's a footnote to a footnote: Funny (not laugh out loud) coincidence how Hingis and Baghdatis were both 8th seeds getting knocked out by no-seeds.