Not a good week for US tennis. The first class lounge on the transatlantic flights between Paris and the US will have had an abundance of depressed stars prematurely heading west.
Lindsay Davenport left after day one with an aching back, Pete Sampras followed with a broken heart and now Andre Agassi with blistered feet.
American hopes at Roland Garros now gingerly rest with Michael Chang, who just happens to face the storming fifth seed Gustavo Kuerton in the next round.
If it's not too indelicate a way to put it, Kuerton now steps into Agassi's shoes as favourite. It was though a good day for speculation to take root.
The image of a tearful Agassi being spirited away into the Parisian night with girlfriend Steffi Graf doing her best to console him, is much too vivid to pass over.
But the facts are scarce on the ground. Simply, they are that the favourite to win for a second successive year was cruising against Slovak Karol Kucera, ranked 65 in the world.
The favourite then went into a steep decline losing 16 games out of 17 in the final 48 minutes, of the match. It ended 2-6, 7-5, 6-1, 6-0.
Agassi had effortlessly taken the first set 6-2 and was leading the second 5-3. Then following treatment for what looked like severe blistering on his right foot, the match crumbled around him.
That's as much as anyone knows as Agassi left Roland Garros immediately with Graf. The International Tennis Federation (ITF) subsequently fined him a meaningless $2,000 for not attending the obligatory press conference.
What is clear is that Agassi called the physiotherapist at 5-3 up in the second set. Camera shots then showed his skin being paired away with a scalpel, leaving a large raw welt on the ball of his foot.
He was also over heard saying that he couldn't serve properly, presumably because of the pressure of coming down and forward with considerable force on the blister.
Although the American completed the match, his tempo clearly dropped and his game of chasing down every ball had become invisible. His expression was almost lachrymose and his body limp.
It is an enormous blow with speculation pointing to the possibility that he may not have the momentum to come back and win this competition again. Having turned 30 on April 29th of this year Agassi has been pacing his career with a great degree of success and having won all four Grand Slams, his motivation had become a factor as much as his body. That was illustrated when everyone had written the Las Vegan out of the Grand Slam picture as recently as three years ago.
In 1996 Agassi was ranked number eight in the world. The year after he plummeted to the depths of 122. His comeback from that, something which neither Bjorn Borg or John McEnroe were able to accomplish, sparked off a remarkable renaissance culminating in the French and US Open titles last year and the Australian Open this year. It was also aired that blisters might be a superficial reason for such a decline.
But a parallel might be drawn from a golfer developing blisters across the palm of his hand where he holds the club. He can swing the club and hit the ball with some pain but don't ask him to shoot a 69. Kucera, almost forgotten in the affair was emphasising his own game more than a lack of one from Agassi.
"I feel great," he said. "I'm in the third round. My game is coming back. It takes time to win matches and gain confidence. I don't know what's in Agassi's mind." At this point, nor does anyone.
