Andre? Rafael? Amelie? Names from the courts, names of recognition. But the name dominating the US Open tennis championships yesterday was Ernesto, as in Tropical Storm Ernesto. If not quite a hurricane it arrived with a shot of rain and wind that kept any other shots from being struck.

Which couldn't have been more opportune for Andre Agassi, who is lurching toward retirement with the courage we have come to expect and the pain he has learned to tolerate.

Andre was to have played yesterday, was to to have met the German B. Becker, whose first name as the television announcers joyfully kept repeating is Benjamin not Boris. But the match, as all others day and night, was postponed, a fine break for the 36-year-old Agassi.

A few hours after his 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 5-7, 7-5, 3-hour, 48-minute win over Marcos Baghdatis that, ending at 12:38 am on Friday lasted from August until September and kept 23,700 fans at Ashe Stadium enthralled and cheering, Agassi received a cortisone injection. His second in three days.

"After the match, Andre's back was stiffening up, pretty excrutiating," his trainer, Gil Reyes said in a telephone interview. "The inflammation was causing tremendous pain and an obvious lack of mobility." Maybe then he wouldn't have been able to play yesterday. On Friday, Andre spent the day resting, in a horizontal position. "It was awful," Agassi's manager, Perry Rogers told the New York Times. "It was so bad he had to lie down in the back of his car." He didn't lie down on the job. Neither did Baghdatis, who although 15 years younger than Agassi, was the one who began cramping in the fifth set. Marcos fell and staggered and bounced but didn't quit. And when the match was done, he and Andre embraced at the net.

"What a great match it was, loved it," said Roger Federer, the defending champ, of course, and top seed, of course.
Roger offered a glimpse of his greatness on Friday, before the storm, when in a straight set win over the declining Tim Henman, Federer hit a ball through his own legs.

Caught in between steps, Federer skipped to his right, reached around his back and zinged a shot between his knees. Henman seemed surprised and, with both players already smiling, Federer smacked a winner to close the fourth game in the final set.

"Rarely do you try this type of shot in a match,'' Federer said. "In practice, it happens all the time. But to come and pull it off on centre court, you have to make sure you're not doing something totally stupid or you'll look like an idiot.''

Said Henman: "There's not a lot you can say at that stage, apart from laugh."

There was a lot you could say ­ or in James Blake's case ­ do about Agassi's victory.

On Friday, Blake, who was beaten last year by Agassi in another memorable through the night match, paid homage to Andre's early years. Blake wore an outfit of Day-Glo spandex tights, hot pink verical bars on his shirt and a white bandanna atop his head.

Before the coin toss for his 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 second-round victory over Teimuraz Gabashvili of Russia, Blake was greeted with chants of "Andre, Andre." If this Open has developed into a provincial USA response to one of its athletic heroes of the past decades, well, how can it not be? Andre's final match here, he said, will be his final competitive match ever. So whether he goes out in the third round or makes it all the way to the final, and that's doubtful, the end is only days away.

Said Reyes, the trainer, "The hope is obviously Andre be able to compete and his body can match his heart. There is no big picture. He must bring his all and leave his all. Once Andre announced his intention to retire, everything became about getting him here. Now that he's here . . . he has no option but to do everything he can to right to the finish." For a while, the finish seemed to be Thursday night/Friday morning.

"Yeah, we were getting worried," said Andre's brother, Phil. "You know how they say your life flashes before your eyes before you die? There was his career flashing before your eyes."

All Agassi offered was, "In most cases I prefer to live without the drama."

It just seems like it's getting better and better." It couldn't get much better than Agassi v Baghdatis. And because it couldn't get much wetter than New York yesterday that match will be the one which fills the conversations for yet another 24 hours.