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Andre Agassi shows his appreciation to the L.A. crowd before walking off the court. Agassi fell t

Los Angeles said goodbye to a legend on Friday. Fans at the Countrywide Classic gave Andre Agassi a standing ovation as he walked off the court after falling to Fernando Gonzalez 6-4, 3-6, 7-5.

Agassi, a winner of 60 ATP titles and a four-time winner of the tournament at UCLA, has made his plans to retire after the U.S. Open widely known, making the match against Gonzalez his last in Los Angeles.

“It’s a long time that you’ve done this, a long time you’ve done it here,” fifth-seeded Agassi said.

“It's not just a game you’re leaving, it’s the people you shared this experience with. Part of that process (was) coming here. I’ll miss it, I’ll miss it dearly.”

No. 3 seed Gonzalez, who grew up watching Agassi play, admitted some mixed emotions about the win. “If I was outside the court I (would) want Andre to win, but I have to play, and win my match.”

Gonzalez was in the drivers seat early in the match by unleashing powerful crosscourt winners throughout the first set.

Down 5-4 in the first, Agassi had a chance to tie it up with Gonzalez serving at 15-40. The Chilean battled back and ultimately closed out the set with another crosscourt forehand that Agassi could not handle.

“Today it seemed like every time I stretched him to the forehand on a good ball he got over there and absolutely murdered it,” Agassi said.

The tides turned in the middle of the second set when Agassi came back from 40-0 to break Gonzalez’s serve and take the 4-2 lead, eventually tying up the match.

Agassi had a chance to pull ahead late in the final set but couldn’t execute. Tied at four games apiece, Gonzalez was down 15-40, giving Agassi the opportunity to serve for the match if he could close out the game.

He could not. Gonzalez fought back and forced Agassi to serve to stay alive.

Down 5-4, Agassi fell behind 0-40. He then battled back from triple match point to tie up the set, earning a standing ovation from the crowd. However, Gonzalez proved to be too much in the end, taking the next two games to win the match.

“I hung in there,” Agassi said. “I thought maybe I had a little momentum there but I just wasn’t getting enough looks on the points.”

After the match, Agassi did his usual bow to the four sides of the stadium and walked off a Los Angeles tennis court for the last time as a professional.

Southern California has been a special place for Agassi. The pro grew up in Las Vegas and would often take road trips to Los Angeles to play matches, long before he began playing in the city professionally.

However, with more tennis left to play, Agassi has a lot distracting him from nostalgia.

“It’s still tennis to me right now,” Agassi said. “It was hard to think about not being back in L.A. when I was dealing with Fernando’s forehand today. I get the luxury of having a lot of distractions on the other side of the net.”

RODDICK WITHDRAWS: No. 1 seed Andy Roddick withdrew from the Countrywide Classic today due to a left side muscle strain that he sustained in his Thursday night victory over Scott Oudsema. “During the next couple of days we will focus on treatment to reduce the pain and inflammation,” Doug Spreen, Andy Roddick’s athletic trainer, told ar.com. “Overall, we just want to make Andy as comfortable as possible and we will evaluate the strain on a daily basis.”

Because of Roddick’s absence, No. 8 Dmitry Tursunov received a walkover through the quarterfinals and will face Gonzalez in the semifinals.

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