Lil' respect for the man...

This morning at around 1:15 New York time, Andre Agassi completed a comeback from two sets down against James Blake to move to his tenth US Open semifinals (in twenty appearances). He'll face Robbie Ginepri, an unseeded American, for the right to get to the finals.

I doubt that any tennis player has had the sort of career arc that Agassi has had

• young turk with cocky style who was supposed to be the next great thing
• disappointment who made a few finals but couldn't break through
• surprise Wimbledon champion
• Gone in 1993 (played in only two slams, made it past the 1st round in one)
• One of the best players in the world in '94 and '95
• totally gone in '97 (played in one slam, had to player the challenger's circuit)
• best player in the world in '99 (two slam titles, one final) - including a French title which seemed to move him into "all-time great" since it completed his career slam
• now elder statesman who has the talent but not quite the youth to compete with the big boys week in and week out

Is there another player in any sport who showed such promise, disappointed us, broke through, disappeared, came back, disappeared, and came back to the sort of late career respect and adulation that Agassi has?

I started out not being able to stand Agassi. he did everything wrong: stood inside the service line, swung at volleys, swung with an open stance, grunted, didn't do it the right way. He was the absolute antithesis of Pete Sampras: the classic serve-and-volleyer, the less exciting, the stoic.

I've come to love watching Andre's game. Clearly he was a harbinger of the modern power game, with everyone swinging at volleys, all the men swinging with open stances, people owning the match by stepping inside the court. He was a paradigm shift that just hadn't come through yet. He was the peak of the coming wave that hadn't yet washed over us.

And, I've come to realize that he seems to be a heck of a guy. He has a charitable foundation, sponsors a college preparatory academy, wrote a beautiful article in SI about his father's dedication, and gave a marvelous induction speech when his wife, Steffi, was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame. From everything I've heard, he appears to be a wonderful father and family man.

Though I will be honest in that there are some freaky fans that he seems to inspire.

And he has done what looks like some seriously stupid stuff here and there - though I'm guessing he got paid for this one.