CAPTAIN AGASSI GUIDES TEAM WORLD TO LAVER CUP GLORY

Andre Agassi has long had a flair for the dramatic.

Born amidst Las Vegas neon, bred amidst the oft-suffocating dorm-room tennis academy life, he emerged in the late ‘80s like some acid-washed fever dream, an image-is-everything, camera-ready superstar; all forehand, flash and mullet.

Or so we thought.

With Fab Four cohorts Pete Sampras, Jim Courier and Michael Chang, he helped bring in a whole new fandom, the sport’s MTV-endorsed answer to the fast-fading Tennis Boom years, jean shorts subbed for Stan Smiths and all-tennis-whites. There he was, falling to his knees on the lawns of the All England Club, the 1992 Wimbledon champion; in Flushing Meadows in ‘95, the first unseeded US Open titlist in the Open Era; in Melbourne, in his AO debut toppling Sampras in the title match. Their storied baseliner vs. serve-and-volleyer contrast would produce an otherworldly rivalry.

But it was in the tail-end of his playing career that we were first introduced to the Andre Agassi we know today, the deep-think sage with the uncanny ability to see the game from unthought-of angles. A new generation of players got their first taste of that this week as Agassi, now 55 and without all that hair, stepped back into the tennis fold as a first-time Laver Cup captain, taking over from John McEnroe as a courtside mentor for Team World.

Team World Captain Andre Agassi takes a moment to absorb his debut Laver Cup victory

Agassi himself said he didn’t know what to expect in his new role, that the whole thing would be an in-real-time, on-the-job learning experience. He went into it, he insisted, with a closed-mouth/open-ears approach, and his players were quick to respond.

“Andre is such a legend of the game. You always hear so much about him,” said the towering power-server Reilly Opelka, 6-foot-11. “The consensus is that he’s just this incredibly nice human being and incredibly intelligent. He gives back to the game and is happy to spread knowledge.”

McEnroe, beloved by his players, waited five years to get his first Laver Cup title, a trophy named for his boyhood idol, the two-time calendar-year Grand Slam champ Rod Laver. Here comes Agassi, who slides in a takes it all in his first go-round. On Sunday night at the Chase Center in San Francisco, in the eighth edition of the global showdown, Team World put the finishing touches on a dramatic 15-9 triumph over Yannick Noah’s Team Europe, securing its third Laver Cup in four years.

“Everybody played a part in making this one of the most memorable weeks I’ve ever spent on a tennis court.” — Team World captain Andre Agassi

It came down to the final match. Of course it did. That Agassi flair for the dramatic again. Appropriately, it was a Californian who played the role of hero. Taylor Fritz, who a night earlier had taken down Carlos Alcaraz in his first-ever win over a world No. 1, took down No. 3 Alexander Zverev in thrilling fashion, 6-3, 7-6(4). It was sweet redemption for the 27-year-old, who was on the other end of things last year in Berlin against Alcaraz.

“Seeing these guys on the bench getting pumped up, seeing a legend of the sport like Andre jumping out of his seat cheering for me, it’s just impossible not to be so fired up giving everything I have every point,” said Fritz. “It was a great feeling to clinch it in the end.”

There was a red-shirted mob scene afterward, Agassi and onetime rival Patrick Rafter, now his vice-captain, in the bum-rush with their delirious charges, most of whom weren’t yet born when they were making their names on the tour. There was Fritz and Argentine Francisco Cerundolo and the 19-year-old Brazilian sensation Joao Fonseca. There was the rock-solid Aussie Alex de Minaur, team alternate Jenson Brooksby and valuable last-minute additions Opelka and Alex Michelsen, all of whom had stepped up in a big way.

“Everybody played a part in making this one of the most memorable weeks I’ve ever spent on a tennis court,” said Agassi during a celebratory post-match presser. “Just unflappable. They never stopped believing. They laid their heart on the line. On paper, a lot of people said they didn’t see an inroad to pulling this off, but we shocked the world.”

De Minaur then stepped in: “No, we shocked Team Europe.”

“That’s a good point,” said Agassi. “It’s the champagne.”

- Richard Osborn

WIMBLEDON IS MONITORING SOCIAL MEDIA TO TRY TO PROTECT PLAYER'S FROM.CYBER BULLYING

 LONDON (AP) — The All England Club is monitoring social media to try to help protect players at Wimbledon from cyberbullying for the first time this year.

“This is not something you’ll see in the public domain at all. You won't see us shout about it. But effectively, we are scrolling social media for any of this type of content, and it means that we can get information that we haven't had in the past. We’re not just relying on what the player might be saying has happened to them,” tournament director Jamie Baker said Friday. “Also, if there is something that is of concern, that’s when our security (team) … can help do something about it.”

Baker said the new initiative is similar to what the French Tennis Federation did during the French Open last year, when it began paying a company to provide players with software that uses artificial intelligence to block negative comments.

“Tennis is doing a lot more of this now, so I think in general, for the athletes, it’s really positive that we’re taking this step,” said Baker, a former player.

He said AI plays a role in the All England Club's efforts in this area, but people also are involved in keeping an eye on what's being directed at competitors online during the two-week Grand Slam tournament that finishes on July 14.

Players can opt in for the service and choose to have full scans of what is being posted on social media. Messages can include anger expressed by gamblers who lost money on a particular match, racist comments and even sometimes rise to the level of death threats, players say.

“The basis of it is if they’ve got anything that we think is a concern or worth flagging, ultimately, it's engaging with the player," Baker said. "The benefit of having it is, you do have the ability to ... officially register what's going on."

After a discussion with the player, the tournament could reach out to the police, if deemed necessary, although Baker declined to say whether that has happened yet.

“I guess, if it got to a point where there was any type of criminal activity,” law enforcement authorities would be brought in, Baker said, adding: “But that would be out of our hands. We'd obviously pass that on. ... But we’re not obviously stepping in and becoming the police.”

- HOWARD FENDRICH

ALLNHAIL ALCARAZ AS HE ENDS DJOKOVIC'S LONG WIMBLEDON REIGN IN THRILLER

Reuters 

Carlos Alcaraz heralded the changing of the guard in men's tennis as he ended Novak Djokovic's long reign at Wimbledon with a rip-roaring 1-6 7-6(6) 6-1 3-6 6-4 victory to win the All England Club title for the first time on Sunday.

The 36-year-old Serbian had been indestructible on Wimbledon's Centre Court for a decade but finally met his match as he ran out of ideas to stop young gun Alcaraz from hurtling towards the title.

After the 20-year-old had broken for a 2-1 lead in the fifth set with a stupendous passing shot winner, Djokovic's racket felt the full force of his anger as he smashed it against the wooden net post to leave it in a mangled mess.

That earned Djokovic a second warning in the contest, with the world number two having also been cautioned earlier for taking too much time to launch into his serves.

All that distraction failed to throw Alcaraz off course as he became the youngest man since 18-year-old Boris Becker in 1986 to win the Challenge Cup after Djokovic scooped a forehand into the net, leaving the Spaniard to collapse on to his back in his moment of triumph.