On the fourth anniversary of the Sept 11 attacks on New York, 35-year-old Agassi graced the city with a display that was in equal part stubborn and inspired before bowing to the superior fitness of the superlative Swiss.
Federer viciously punched the air with his racket when Agassi placed a backhand return long to celebrate his sixth Grand Slam title and his hardest-earned to date.
He was almost apologetic at having deflated a raucous 24,797-strong crowd who had been living out their and Agassi’s American dream when he led 4-2 in the third set.
Compliments do not come any bigger from a man who has played with the likes of Pete Sampras, Jimmy Connors, John McEnroe, Boris Becker, Stefan Edberg and Ivan Lendl.
The statistics, though, back up Agassi’s judgement.
Sunday’s win meant Federer became the first man to win back-to-back Wimbledon and US Open titles in consecutive years since the game turned professional in 1968.
He has now won his last 23 finals, 11 better than the previous record.
He has won 71 of his 74 matches this year.
Sunday’s win was his 35th consecutive hardcourt victory, breaking Sampras’s professional era record of 34.
He also joined an elite club of only four men since records began in the 1880s to win their first six Grand Slam finals. In the professional era nobody has won more than their first three.
Agassi said he did not intend to retire yet, despite the increasing demands of his family life and a chronic back problem that has prompted talk of him quitting this year.
He at least had the satisfaction of taking a set off Federer in a grand slam final, something that has only happened once before.
By the end, however, he was fishing about on court like a middle-aged Dad with a spade on the beach.
Agassi lost because, like all Federer’s other rivals, he could not maintain his performance level at 100 percent.
For the 90 minutes that he did, though, Flushing Meadows was bedlam.
The 6-3 score suggests Federer took the first set with some ease but an obdurate Agassi saved seven set points before a big first serve from the Swiss finally did the trick.
Chants of “An-dre, An-dre” rang out from the fans rammed inside the stands of Arthur Ashe Court and the old-timer stunned Federer with a break for 2-0 at the start of the second set.
Agassi levelled the match with some ease and the crowd began to get on top of the Swiss, who had perhaps unwisely said before coming on court that he hoped they would all be for the American and against him.
A cry of “miss it!” just as the Swiss hit a second serve over-stepped the mark and Federer was soon 4-2 down in the third set.
If the champion was rattled, though, it did not show.
Agassi had been enjoying most of the luck with netcords until that point but in the next game, facing a break point, one of his forehands sat up off the tape and Federer put away a simple backhand to break back.
It proved to be the turning point. Agassi bravely saved four break points to hold for 6-5 but the yelps he was now emitting with each shot revealed his growing fatigue.
Federer held easily and the tiebreak was a no-contest. Agassi looked spent as the Swiss won it 7-1 in a manner reminiscent of his 7-0 tiebreak win over Australian Lleyton Hewitt in the semifinals.
Federer unleashed his full repertoire to overwhelm Agassi in the fourth set and it was hard not to feel sorry for the 1994 and 1999 champion as he was passed repeatedly.
One final, mistimed backhand put him out of his misery and allowed the Swiss to turn triumphantly to his supporters in almost the only part of the stadium that had wanted him to win.
BEIJING: Eighth seed Carlos Moya eased past Thailand’s Paradorn Srichaphan with an efficient 7-6 6-3 win in the first round of the China Open on Monday.
Results:
Juan Carlos Ferrero bt Hyung-Taik Lee 4-6 6-3 7-5; Carlos Moya bt Paradorn Srichaphan 7-6(6) 6-3; Dmitry Tursunov bt Lars Burgsmueller 6-3 6-4; Peter Wessels bt Wayne Arthurs 7-6(5) 6-4; Stefan Koubek bt Ivo Heuberger 6-3 7-6(6).
BALI: Results from the Bali International women’s singles matches on Monday
Francesca Schiavone bt Jamea Jackson 6-4 3-6 6-4; Rika Fujiwara bt Natalie Grandin 6-4 2-6 7-6; Na Li bt Nuria Llagostera Vives 6-3 6-1.—Agencies