Stricken with excruciating back pain and unable to draw strength from the wildly partisan crowd, the Las Vegas showman was powerless to engineer another great escape and lost to the 112th ranked Becker in just over three hours.

Andre Agassi of the U.S. blows a kiss to the crowd after his loss against Germany's Benjamin Becker at the U.S. Open tennis tournament in New York, September 3, 2006. Agassi was playing in his last U.S. Open. [Reuters]

The capacity crowd at Arthur Ashe Stadium stood and cheered before the final point and the ovation continued after Becker's 27th ace closed out the match.

When the 36-year-old Agassi sat down courtside after the match, the tears flowed.

"I was sitting there realizing that I was saying goodbye to everybody out there, and they were saying goodbye to me," said Agassi, who had announced at Wimbledon he would retire at the U.S. Open.

"It's saying goodbye. You know, it's a necessary evil. But we were getting through it together. That felt amazing."

Agassi, who needed several cortisone injections this week for his chronic back pain, opened the match lacking his usual mobility and precision groundstrokes.

He double-faulted to lose the first set and the crowd seemed to sense there would be no magic to rival Agassi's five-set, second-round thriller over Marcos Baghdatis.

Agassi managed to win the second-set tiebreaker 7-4 with the crowd urging him to keep fighting. Every winning point by Agassi, even if it occurred during an error by Becker, was met with thunderous applause.

Big shots

Becker, a 25-year-old former NCAA singles champion at Baylor University, tired in the third and fourth sets and appeared to rely on his big shots rather than engage Agassi with long rallies.

When Agassi looked like he had the energy and will to stage a fightback, Becker's big shots began to find their mark. He broke Agassi at 15 in the 11th game of the final set and then served out the match with four straight points.

"It was a tough moment, an emotional moment for me, too," said Becker, who had 82 winners in the three-hour match.

"I was happy obviously. At the same time I was sad. I didn't know really what to do, how to react."

Agassi blew kisses to each section of the crowd before sitting down to take the moment in. After several minutes, he collected his thoughts.

"The scoreboard said I lost today," Agassi told the crowd. "But what the scoreboard doesn't say is what it is I have found. Over the last 21 years, I have found loyalty.

"You have pulled for me on the court and also in life. I found inspiration. You have willed me to succeed, sometimes even in my lowest moments. And I've found generosity.

"You have given me your shoulders to stand on to reach for my dreams, dreams I could never have reached without you. Over the last 21 years, I have found you, and I will take you and the memory of you with me for the rest of my life."

He walked off the court having banged 21 aces and 37 winners in the losing effort.

Agassi, one of only five men to have won a career Grand Slam, was asked by reporters what he would do during the rest of his time in New York and when he will be going home to Las Vegas.

"I don't know and I don't know," he said laughing. "Who cares what I do, right? Doesn't matter."