Agassi had announced that the Flushing Meadows Grand Slam will be his last.

"I've spent a lot of time over the last few months knowing that this tournament would be the end.

"I look at the young guys and it's evenly balanced between me seeing the great things they have to look forward to and how much I wouldn't do it again.

"It feels like a balance that leaves me very clear and at peace," the 36-year-old was quoted as saying by BBC Sport in a post-game press conference.

The eight-time Grand Slam winner, who was struggling with a back injury for the past few months, fell to the 25-year-old Becker in a four-set match that ended 7-5 6-7 (4-7) 6-4 7-5.

"I went out there not feeling terrible pain, but sort of still tight from everything that had transpired a few nights earlier," the two-time US Open champion said.

"The pain came quickly. It can do that and it did. I knew I was in trouble at that point."

It was an emotional scene as Agassi fought his tears and exited a capacity-crowd Arthur Ashe Stadium to a standing ovation and a roar of applause.

He was greeted with the same gesture by his fellow players in the locker room and journalists in the

"That's the greatest applause that any person will ever receive in their life when it comes from their peers," he said.

"We're people that succeed, in some cases at the demise of the other. To have them applaud you is the ultimate compliment."