Perfect Game of Tennis Robot Andre Agassi: 18-1 Shutout Win

"Felt like fighting with an alien from the space."

Lee Hyun-tack (27, Samsung Securities), firing down his opponents so far, could not do anything to stop Agassi, and gave up the match.

Tennis superstar Andre Agassi (33, USA). He sunk Lee deep down into the water in the second round of Australia Open held yesterday in Melbourne, Australia. It was a 3-0 win for Agassi. He was incredibly strong for a man in his 30s.

The match lasted only for one hour and 20 minutes. For the first, Lee won the championship of the ATP Tour, but he couldn`t do anything stop the powerful strokes of Agassi, the second strong player in the world. Samsung`s coach Choo Won-hong praised, "Agassi performed better than his 20s. He was like a tennis robot."

Agassi showed off his well-built body, indicating he had concentrated on weight training for some time. He ran all around the court without any break, leaving a remarkable record of winning 18 games in a row after losing the first game to Lee.

On the other hand, Lee`s got exhausted from the previous championship. Nonetheless, Lee tried to play power with Agassi. In the process, he made numerous mistakes (or 31), almost double the number of Agassi`s. So far, Lee have taken on Agassi 3 times, but lost all to him.

With his wife Steffi Graf cheering for him on the stand, Agassi said, after the match, "All went good. I don`t think [Lee] did it poor."

Everything began to work out for Agassi from the moment he met Graf. After he got married to Brook Shields in 1997, Agassi fell into the doldrums. In 1999, they broke up. Soon thereafter, Agassi fell in love with Graf. Graf was once called the empress on the court, and won all the 4 championships in 1988.

First year when he met Graf, he grabbed two major championships (or France Open and US Open) in 4 years. He won the championship of Australia Open in 2000 and 2001. His world ranking, once pushed back below top 100, shot up back.

After their marriage in October, 2001, he has fathered a son. It is a matter of time, many experts believe, that Agassi is to win back the number one spot in the world.

In the meanwhile, Daniela Hantuchova (SVK) recorded a 2-0 victory over Adriana Serra Zanetti (ITA), while Anna Kournikova (RUS) lost the match to Justine Henin-Hardenne (BEL) 0-2.

Jong-Seok Kim kjs0123@donga.com