Power Strokes & Power Chords Under the Big Lights

Andre Agassi managed to eke out another five set nailbiter today. After taking the first two sets and going up four love in the fourth, Agassi's opponent Baghdatis managed to take his game up a notch and carry the game to an exciting 7-5 final set. Unfortunately for Baghdatis, he cramped up in the fifth set and ended up struggling at the end. There's no way either he or Agassi will ever know whether the result of the match would have been the same had Baghdatis not cramped. Still, it could have been Agassi who cramped, and physical conditioning is as much a part of winning and as a great backhand or 125mph serve. So the bottom line is it was a great match, a memorable one and Agassi won.

Now he only has five more to go (to quote John McEnroe's subsequent on-air interview with Agassi).

Okay, that's power strokes. . . now on to the power chords.

It's not a basketball game if they don't play it. It's hardly even a baseball game if they don't play it. Same may be true for Hockey. It must be the national anthem of sporting events. Even so, I never expected that in the middle of a tennis match . . . let alone at the tensest moments of the final set . . . I would hear the sound system break into the unmistakable chord sequence of Gary Glitter's "Rock & Roll No.1" - announcing the moment had come for the crowd to stand on their feet, clap rhythmically, pump their collective fists and shout in unison (and on the beat) "Hey".

But, in a tennis stadium?