Ms Agassi, nee Shields, was a babbling Brooke throughout. With a white sweater knotted loosely, French-style, over a red knit dress she lived every shot as Andre played his opening match of the US Open. Husband won in four sets; wife was just wonderful.
What a difference a night made; 24 hours earlier Agassi, without a title this year, and ranked a lowly 63, has been the pariah of the fans in the Arthur Ashe stadium for failing to turn up for the parade of the champions.
He still failed to come up with an off-court answer - "a situation arised (sic) that I needed to make a call" - but posed altogether too many questions for his fellow American Steve Campbell, winning 6-1, 6-1, 4-6, 6-3. "I gotta say when I got out there I remembered the dance," said Agassi.
Leading everybody a dance - will he, won't he - has been the story of Agassi's year. He made the church in Carmel to marry Ms Shields in April all right, but nobody could be very sure if his marriage with tennis was still intact.
He entered this tournament with a year record of nine wins to 10 defeats, the only small sign that he might be getting back into some sort of shape coming earlier this month when Agassi reached the quarter-finals of the RCA Championships in Indianapolis, including a straight sets win over Spain's Alex Corretja.
New York immediately found their man in the pink. "My god, look at his shirt," gasped a fan as Agassi made his floodlit entry in rose splendour. "Nice gear, Andre!" Wimbledon officials would have swooned with predominantly white faces.
Campbell, a native of Buffalo, and ranked 130th, soon knew that his face was about to turn the colour of Agassi's shirt. The podge has gone, and there was a zip to the little man's ground strokes that made it quite clear he meant business. "I'm moving well, serving like shit," said Agassi afterwards, with his usual boundless grace.
"He just totally took my serve away," said Campbell. "The harder I hit it, the harder he returned." The only area Campbell could match Agassi was the size of his earing.
There was a solidity to Agassi's game that has been missing since he reached the semi-finals here last year, although then lost tamely to Michael Chang - prompting the blaring headline "Gutless" in a New York tabloid.
"The fundamentals of everything I need to improve on are there now," said Agassi. The struggle is far from over though. Campbell, despite the ability to hit the occasional shattering shot, had no right to take a set off the former US Open, Wimbledon, and Australian Open champion.
Agassi faces a possible third round tie against Russia's Yevgeny Kafelnikov, the number three seed, and only then will the true nature of his form be apparent.
Of one thing there is no doubt: Agassi's mere presence lifts the excitement level several notches. He may have achieved fame beyond his performances, and frequently plumbs fresh depths in banality and bad taste, but the game needs him, particularly at this tournament which is more about personality than quality of tennis.
"The past doesn't matter anymore, just the future," said Brad Gilbert, Agassi's coach and mentor. "Andre is a 27-year-old, not 36. He still has a lot left in him. If he gets through the first week, he'll be tough to beat. He's one of the few players who can win this tournament."
It was Gilbert who resurrected Agassi's faltering career in 1994, the year Agassi won the US Open as an unseeded player. "Brad spent his whole career winning matches he should not have won," said Agassi. "I have kinda done the opposite, losing matches I shouldn't have lost. For all those who can't make the distinction between when I'm playing and when I'm not - I'm playing."
This is more than can be said for Spain's Carlos Moya, seeded eight and Thomas Enqvist of Sweden, seeded 11. Moya, beaten by Pete Sampras in the Australian Open final this year, won the Hamlet Cup on Long Island last weekend but injured his shoulder - Alas, poor Carlos - in the process and lost his first round match to France's Guillaume Raoux.
