Slightly stooped, his bald pate shining in the lights, Andre Agassi stared down the future last night.
It was the first evening of the main draw of the Tennis Masters Canada tournament and everywhere, the old was being ushered out in favour of the new.
Across the vast campus at York University, the old jerririgged tennis centre stands abandoned. Buildings, people, outlive their usefulness. It's only a matter of when.
Across the net stood a German Adonis named Tommy Haas, bigger, ponytailed and 26, just ripe for slaughter.
There is, thankfully, something left in Andre Agassi.
"It was pretty special out there," Agassi said. "It was great atmosphere. It feels like you're playing in the finals and you're in the first round."
Every time out, of course, is the finals for Agassi.
OLDEST PLAYER
At 34, the oldest player in the draw, Agassi is coy about his retirement plans but he has been troubled by a bothersome hip and he has buried all his contemporaries: Connors, McEnroe, Lendl, Becker, Edberg, Sampras, Courier. They have life-sized posters of many of them outside the stadium here, a sort of gallery of ghosts to welcome the last of the originals.
Agassi will be there soon but for now, the real thing is better. Beaten by Haas their last time out, Agassi charged the net at key moments. As always, his approach to the ball was faultless but he constructed his points and marshalled his strength magnificently. It was a win for the ages, and the aged, a premium champagne bottle smashed against the hull of the new stadium.
"I received so much support out there," Agassi said. "At the end, I needed it."
Agassi beat Haas 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, by staring him down in the third set.With the set tied 4-4, a fan shouted just as the kid was about to serve and his shot skidded into the net to hand Agassi the ninth game by a double fault.
A moment later, Agassi, the beneficiary of the breech, stared deep into the stands.
It was a parent's look.
"My look," Agassi said, "was to let them know no one was appreciating that and to have them not do it again."
Agassi held serve, inducing pitiful returns by attacking Haas' backhand, putting away a lovely serve and volley and then pressuring a serve that Haas hit long.
Nice doing business with you, kid.
He has matured beautifully, Agassi has, from the neon shirts, denim shorts and flowing locks to a father of two. He has been the movie star route with Brooke Shields and now has found a more complementary match in the stolid Steffi Graf.
Agassi was, and maybe still is, a bit of street kid. Now wealthy as a Pharaoh, he operates his own charter school, comprised mostly of minority kids, in Las Vegas.
It has been a spectacular career. He was the No. 3-ranked player in 1988, the No. 4 player last year, 15 years down the road. No other player has won four different slams on four different surfaces.
Unlike Connors, who revelled in the underdog status that comes with age, Agassi does not play on his years. The rough edges have long since been smoothed over. There is no bravado, only a soft-spoken dignity.
A troublesome hip, the product of too many days on too many courts, has tested his will to play. He is like all of us.
"If I feel my age out there, it's a bad sign,"he said. "There have been times I have. When I feel good, I don't think about it at all."
In the end, the old man pumped his fist and then he bowed, regally, to all four corners of the stadium.
He was, for one more night, King again.
