London: Nineteen years after strutting into Flushing Meadow as a teenage debutant, Andre Agassi returns to the US Open next week for what could be his final appearance at a Grand Slam.

If, that is, his back can take the strain.

Now 35 and suffering from a sciatic nerve problem, the Las Vegan has dropped several hints he will drag his aching limbs off the ATP Tour and retire at the end of the year.

“As much as I want to get out there and do the best I can, you will not see me on the court anymore if I’m not 100 percent,” the eight-time Grand Slam champion vowed last week.

“If I have a little pain in my life, that’s fine. I just don’t want it on the tennis court because I work too hard to get out there and feel helpless.”

It seemed doubtful Agassi would make it to Flushing Meadow after he withdrew from Wimbledon in June due to his back condition.

By winning the Los Angeles Open and then reaching the final of the Montreal Masters in August, Agassi showed that age and creaking joints have not dulled his lightning reflexes and natural instinct.

However, a full two-week, best-of-five-sets Grand Slam fortnight is a different matter for the American who is using cortisone injections to numb the pain.

The backing he can expect from the New York crowd will also strengthen him.

“The US Open is different,” he said. “Every one is unique to itself. I do look forward to the Open’s personality. It’s a great place to play.

“I feel like there’s just a lot of matches I can play on my terms, and certainly the home crowd (helps).”

In 1986 on his US Open debut, a 16-year-old Agassi lost in the first round to Briton Jeremy Bates, collecting $2,816 to spend on the peroxide streaks in his hair and garish T-shirts that would soon become his trademark.

Two decades later all excess hair has been shaved off and Agassi has more important things on which to spend his career earnings of over $30 million.

His wife Steffi Graf is only a year older than him at 36, yet she retired six years ago. They have two young children requiring the attention of a father who has nothing left to prove on a tennis court.

Agassi is one of only five men, and the only player of his generation, to have won all four Grand Slam events and his recent record at Flushing Meadow bears comparison with anybody’s.

In his last six appearances he has won it once (in 1999), finished runner-up once, reached the semi-finals once and the quarter finals twice, most recently last year when he took eventual champion Roger Federer to five sets. Agassi’s generational rival Pete Sampras finished his career by winning the 2002 US Open.

While journalists clamour for a nice, neat ending to the career of another tennis great, the man himself appears genuinely undecided.

“I’ve said for a long time that I’m going to play this sport as long and as hard as I can,” he said.

“I don’t know how long that’s going to be but I’m going to give back every bit it’s given to me, or at least retire knowing I couldn’t do more. It would be great to win, but I have no interest in putting a nice little bow around my career and handing it over to anybody.