Au revoir, Andre

PARIS -- The sky was French blue, solidly. But not as blue as the guy walking out of town. Walking away from the soil he had ruled, the sun glittering on the head once adorned by the French crown.

This patch of rusty earth had been hallowed ground to Andre Agassi. Now it had the feel of a cemetery where, eyes moist, he mourned himself, his head bowed as he plodded toward the door. It was 2:56 yesterday afternoon; the 2004 French Open was merely 3 hours 51 minutes old, and Agassi was among the first-round rubble carted away from Stade Roland Garros.

He may have run out of time, regardless of the fitness of his 34-year-old body or the competitiveness within his mind.

"Amazing!" That was the highly pleased obituary from the highly improbable gravedigger who planted Agassi where he had won the title in 1999, thus becoming only the fifth man to capture all four tennis majors.

"Amazing!" was the thought rebounding in the brain of 23-year-old Frenchman Jerome Haehnel as he took one last swing and watched the yellow ball streak past Agassi's outstretched racket. Not a particularly swift ace (105 miles per hour), but it was enough, the closing shovelful of the most, well, amazing defeat of Agassi's illustrious 19-year career, 6-4, 7-6 (7-4), 6-3.

A nobody when he arose yesterday morning, a confirmed bush leaguer from the Alsatian sauerkraut belt, No. 271 Haehnel went to bed as the toast of France, his face on every television screen. It was "a bad day" when Haehnel learned that his "favorite player," Agassi, the No. 6 seed, was to be the foe for his debut in the big leagues.

It was something like a rookie being called up from Pawtucket and pitching a perfect game at Fenway Park against the Yankees.

"I never met Agassi, but I saw him play on TV," Haehnel said in some English and through a French translator. "I didn't want to play him, but a friend said, `Jerome, he just lost to a guy like you. You know, a guy way down in the 200s.' " That was Nenad Zimonjic, a No. 322 qualifier, last week at St. Polten (Austria). Also the first round, which makes you wonder about Agassi's stability these days.

So the "Sauerkraut Kid" -- saying yes, they do eat a lot of it in his village of 400 souls, Hochstatt -- showed up to act as a cabbage head against the great Agassi. Except the wrong head rolled.

"I was nervous, yes, but not after we started playing," said Haehnel. "Only one time. I got ahead, 3-1, in the third, and I thought about winning.

"But he broke my serve in the next game [the only time], and I started thinking about Mathieu." That would be compatriot Paul-Henri Mathieu, whom Agassi overcame here from two sets down in 2002. "So I just forgot about the score."

Haehnel, who got into the draw from the qualifying tournament, owns a few junior titles but has done little in the minors.

"Making enough money to eat, live," he said. "I thought if I didn't do something good this year, I'd stop. Get some different work.

"Now I don't have to for a while."

He's guaranteed a minimum $25,560 without progressing further.

Agassi's last major flop in the opening round was dealt in 1998 by No. 118 Marat Safin, an 18-year-old qualifier. Two years before that, he was a first-round bust at Wimbledon against No. 281 Doug Flach.

However, Haehnel was the least likely of those who have beaten Agassi in a major. Nevertheless, he was playing patiently, swinging from his heels throughout as though it were batting practice.

"Enjoying," he said. "Not nervous. Relaxed. My coach helps me stay relaxed."

Coach? He said with a laugh, "It's my beautiful girlfriend, Aurelie Sautet. She tells me to relax, and I do. She told me not to be overimpressed because it was Agassi."

Like No. 1 Roger Federer, Haehnel has no formal coach. "I had one," he said. "He put too much pressure on me to improve."

Agassi, who was weighted down by 50 unforced errors, said, "There's two guys out there, and you have to figure out a way to do it better than the other guy. As in St. Polten, and here, my opponents were better than I was. That's for sure."

But why?

"I never got comfortable," said Agassi. "I wasn't controlling the ball the way I wanted to, wasn't putting it where I wanted. As a reaction to not putting it where I wanted, I found myself in the wrong parts of the court.

"There's no explanation for hitting the ball like that. Usually a few things can go wrong. But striking the ball is not a problem for me. If things don't go right, you get exploited and exposed. I probably got what I deserved."

Has the downward spiral begun? Though it's always dangerous to underrate Agassi, he may have to do extremely well at the year's last two majors, Wimbledon and the US Open, to stick around because he demands such high performance from himself.

After 90 minutes of the two-hour clash, Agassi snapped Haehnel's serve, to 2-3.

"I thought I could turn it around," he said. "But two minutes of bad tennis [losing serve to 3-5] and the match is over."

Hopes of even a fourth set were gone, and that was all right with the winner.

"I never played five sets or four," said Haehnel. "I don't think my physique would let me. Not possible."

Only three were necessary.