after a very long and successful career

Agassi bids emotional farewell




POSTED: 7:31 p.m. EDT, September 3, 2006 POSTED: 7:31 p.m. EDT, September 3, 2006 POSTED: 7:31 p.m. EDT, September 3, 2006 POSTED: 2331 GMT (0731 HKT), September 3, 2006

NEW YORK (CNN) -- A tearful Andre Agassi said goodbye Sunday to professional tennis after losing to German qualifier Benjamin Becker in the third round of the U.S. Open.

"The scoreboard said I lost today, but what the scoreboard doesn't say is what it is I have found," 36-year-old Agassi told thousands of cheering fans in the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Forest Hills, Queens.

"You have willed me to achieve even in my lowest moments," he said.

"You have given me your shoulders to stand on to reach for my dreams, dreams that I could not have reached without you."

The 25-year-old Becker -- who entered the competition ranked 112th -- won 7-5 6-7 6-4 7-5 over Agassi, who was ranked 39, in a match that ran for just over three hours.

Agassi said that back pain flared during the match and affected his game. "The pain came quickly; it can do that and it did," Agassi said. "You immediately start cutting corners."

Agassi's two-decade career record includes 868 wins and 273 losses.

He appeared 20 times in the U.S. Open, winning the event in 1994 and in 1999. He won a total of eight Grand Slam titles, covering the U.S., French and Australian Opens, and Wimbledon