Newsday, NY
Sept 6 2004
MARATHON MAN
Sarge deserves a salute
Sargsian, after two improbable wins, faces his good buddy Agassi
BY JEFF WILLIAMS
STAFF WRITER
For Sargis Sargsian, this is just too good. After a 2004 season
filled with poor play and plenty of frustration, he finds himself in
the fourth round of the U.S. Open. He finds himself playing in front
of his adopted American family. He finds himself about to play Andre
Agassi today.
“It’s crazy good, unbelievable good,” said the man called Sarge.
Just how crazy, just how unbelievable has Sarge’s Open been? His
five-set victory over Paul-Henri Mathieu on Saturday night in 4:44
followed a five-set victory over 10th-seeded Nicolas Massu in 5:09 on
Thursday night, the longest back-to-back matches any man has ever
played in the Open.
His appearance in the fourth round equals his best performance at a
major, at the 2003 Australian Open. But what is just too good is that
he now gets to play Agassi, his best friend in tennis, at Arthur Ashe
Stadium.
“This is very much a dream come true for me,” Sargsian said yesterday
as he sat in a quiet corner of the players lounge. “Would be dream
come true to beat him, too.”
Sargsian’s story is just too good. He’s a 31-year-old Armenian who
came from a poor family and harsh conditions in his homeland on a
trip to the United States with his national team in 1992. Debbie
Welch, a former top-flight player who was a peace worker in Armenia,
had seen him play and was instrumental in bringing the team over for
exhibition matches in the Northeast.
In trying to arrange for players to stay in the New Haven, Conn.,
area, Welch called names in the phone book that ended in “ian.” She
came across Vazrich and Catherine Mansourian.
“She asked us if we were tennis fans and would we be interested in
hosting some players,” Catherine Mansourian said yesterday from her
Orange, Conn., home. “I said, ‘Are you kidding? My father-in-law was
the national tennis champion of Iran.'”
So the Mansourians, who are Armenian, took in Sargsian and another
player, Tsolak Gevorkian. What started out as something less than a
week’s stay has turned into a 12-year relationship.
“It’s almost impossible to believe,” Catherine said. “But it’s been
an amazing journey.”
The long story short is this. The Mansourians put Gevorkian in high
school and tried to find a college scholarship for Sargsian.
Catherine Mansourian mailed out 24 letters to universities and
Sargsian landed a scholarship at Arizona State. After his junior year
he had back surgery, then came back to win the 1995 NCAA
championship.
That year he got a wild card into his first U.S. Open. After turning
professional, he met Brad Gilbert, then Agassi’s coach. Gilbert
arranged for Sargsian and Agassi, whose father is Armenian, to
practice together before a tournament in San Jose in 1996. They have
been fast friends since. Agassi owns a 6-0 career record against him.
“We talk every day during the [Open],” said Sargsian, who ia ranked
54th in the world and has one victory on the ATP tour. “He calls me
after the matches to congratulate me, to give me advice, to help me
out. He tells me about how to play certain players. He tells me how
to recover from long matches, tells me to take electrolytes. He is a
true friend. He gives from his heart. He means so much to me.”
Another significant presence in his life is his metzpop. That’s
Armenian for grandfather, and Sargsian considers Minas Mansourian,
Vazrich Mansourian’s 101-year-old father, to be his own grandfather.
The Mansourians, including Minas, have been to all of his Open
matches. “They have been so good to me, it is unbelievable story,”
Sargsian said.
It’s a story too good to end now.