Andre the Giant

We went down to UCLA last night to see an exhibition match between Andre Agassi and John McEnroe. It was a benefit for the Agassi Foundation. Andre took the match 6-4, 6-2. Both guys played pretty serious tennis, Agassi even making a patented back-to-the-net between-the-legs shot that McEnroe managed to return, but only so Agassi could smoke a backhand winner past him to the far corner. Awesome!

McEnroe busted three racquets, challenged numerous calls, asked one of the line judges to switch out for another and got into an angry shouting match with a fan. Agassi was smoking the ball all over the place, and every time he blasted one by Johnny Mac he would grimace because he knew Hurricane McEnroe was on the way.

I was thinking it's gotta be pretty hard for McEnroe, because people come to these events to see him go through all his crazy antics, and they laugh when he starts talking to himself and they chuckle when he stares down a linesman, and the next thing you know he's got himself all worked up for real. You could see him go through that very progression as he melted down. At first people encouraged him, thinking it was all an act, but by the end he was really mad, and he left the court with barely a wave and without sticking around for an interview.

Agassi, as always, was awesome with the fans and it was great to see him do that thing after the match where he bows and blows a kiss to each side of the court.

On a side note, by the luck of a nifty ticket purchase, we were sitting right in the heart of the players' box, 6 rows up behind the baseline. Tommy Haas was three rows in front of us, Vince Spadea was next to him, Alex Olmedo (who beat Rod Laver to win Wimbledon years ago) was two rows up, Gavin Rossdale (a decent amateur who played an exo doubles match earlier in the night) was in front of Tommy. And billionaire Larry Ellison sat directly across the aisle from us. As I said to my girl, I could tell we were at a different kind of sporting event because the scent of aftershave and musk was everywhere.

All in all, an incredible night. So glad I got to see Andre play in person. Having Johnny Mac on hand was an added bonus.