Era ends with Agassi agony

The end came at 2:29 on a sun-dappled afternoon, after three rounds, four injections and 224 Grand Slam victories. Andre Agassi blew his last kiss to almost 24,000 friends in Arthur Ashe Stadium, his tank empty, his voice quivering, his eyes as moist as everyone else's following an on-court retirement speech that seemed more painful than his throbbing back.

Andre Agassi is 36 years old, and wakes up today as a retired man. In his 21st and final U.S. Open, he delivered two stirring nights and heroic battles, before succumbing to the combination of unrelenting back pain and the backcourt firepower of a German qualifier and Open rookie with a familiar name but an unknown game.

The name is Benjamin Becker, and he belted a 133 mph ace on match point. The final score was 7-5, 6-7 (4), 6-4, 7-5, and before the chair umpire could announce the 25-year-old Becker's triumph, the crowd was bathing Agassi, blow-dried renegade turned white-clad icon, in a four-minute standing ovation.

"It just felt amazing out there," Agassi said. "(I was) overwhelmed with how they embraced me at the end."

He said this a few minutes after he told the crowd, "The scoreboard said I lost today, but what the scoreboard doesn't say is what it is I have found," and then he thanked everyone for their loyalty and generosity and inspiration.

Gil Reyes, Agassi's trainer and spiritual beacon, had watched his friend get turned into a human pin cushion over the previous days, taking a cortisone shot and three shots of Toradol, an anti-inflammatory, to be able to play through searing nerve pain in his lower back.