Andre Agassi

Andre Kirk Agassi, born April 29^th 1970, is widely accepted as being one of the most popular and flamboyant tennis players of all time. During his 20 year professional playing career he won over 60 major tennis titles including an Olympic gold medal at the 1996 Atlanta games.

Born in Las Vegas, Nevada to an Iranian father and American mother, Agassi started playing tennis at a very young age at his father’s insistence.

At the age of 13 Agassi was sent to Nick Bollettieri’s training academy in Florida, initially for a three month period as that was all his father could afford, however, after watching the young Agassi play for a few minutes, Bollettieri famously called his father back and, tearing up the check, told him that his son could stay for free as he had,” more natural talent than anyone he had ever seen.”

Agassi turned professional in 1986 at the age of 16 and played his first tournament in California, winning his first match but then losing in the second round. By the end of that year he was ranked 91^st in the world. In 1988 he won six tournaments and by the end of the year had earned more than 2 million dollars in prize money and finished the year ranked number three in the world, behind the Czech, Ivan Lendl and Switzerland’s Mats Wilander.

Agassi bizarrely chose not to play in The Australian Open for the first eight years of his career,(which ironically later became his best event) and also boycotted Wimbledon for four years because he did not agree with their strict white dress code.

Agassi reached his first Grand Slam final in 1990 at the French Open, losing over four sets to Andres Gomez, the same year he reached the final of the US Open and was the strong favourite but lost in three sets to a young Pete Sampras. The rivalry with his fellow American continued to dominate tennis for the next decade.

In 1991 Agassi reached his second consecutive French Open final, this time losing out to Jim Courier in a hard fought final. The same year, Agassi decided to play at Wimbledon, honouring their dress code by appearing on court for his first match in pristine white. The following year he returned to Wimbledon, winning his first Grand Slam title in a five set final against Croatian Goran Ivanisevic at the age of 22.

1993 wasn’t a very good year for Agassi, he spent much of it plagued by injury and although he made Wimbledon, he lost to eventual champion Pete Sampras in a five set quarter final. He spent the rest of the year out after undergoing wrist surgery.

Prior to 1994 Agassi’s playing style was aggressive but he played conservatively, concentrating on his own game and forcing errors from his opponent, he also had one of the best returns of serve in the game, moving quickly and able to anticipate exactly where the ball was going to drop.

In 1994 Agassi employed Brad Gilbert as his coach and went about a transformation. Instead of playing the base line tennis that we had become accustomed to, under Gilbert he began to play a more tactical game, and was considerably more consistent. He had a slow start to the year but ended on a high with a well deserved US Open win, beating Michael Chang over five sets in the fourth round and overcoming German giant Michael Stich in the final.

Agassi competed in The Australian Open for the first time in 1995 and won, beating old rival Pete Sampras in a four set final. The pair met in tournament finals 5 further times that year with Agassi winning three of them. That period was the best of Agassi’s career, finally reaching the position of world number one in April, and holding the position for thirty weeks during which time he won 73 matches and lost only 9.

The following year Agassi failed to reach any of the Grand Slam finals and the high point of his year was his Olympic gold.

The next couple of years were disappointing for Agassi, his old wrist injury resurfaced and in 1997 played only 24 matches. During that time he also failed a drug test and wrote a letter to the ATP claiming his drink had been spiked. The ATP dropped the charges with a warning, however after the release of Agassi’s autobiography it was revealed that he had in fact been taking crystal meth at the time and the letter was a lie. By the end of 1997 his world ranking had plummeted to 141.

After a brief hiatus, Agassi began a strenuous training program and began working his way back up the rankings by playing in the Challenger series tournaments. During 1998 Agassi won five titles and rocketed his was up the rankings from number 122 to number 6, then highest jump ever made during a calendar year, entering the history books when, in 1999, he came back from two sets down to win the French Open, becoming at that time only the fifth male player to have won all four Grand Slam singles titles throughout his career, this also made him the first ever male player to win a Golden Grand Slam (all four grand slams and an Olympic gold medal).

Agassi’s resurgence continued, reaching the Wimbledon final in 1999, losing out to Pete Sampras in straight sets but going on to win the US Open and ending the year as world number one. He began the next year by carrying on his winning ways, triumphing in the Australian Open, defeating Sampras en route and beating Yevgeny Kafelnikov in the final and was the first player in over thirty years to reach consecutive Grand Slam finals.

Agassi had a fairly successful 2000, reaching the semi finals of Wimbledon, losing in an epic match against Pat Rafter, generally considered to be the best game of tennis ever played at Wimbledon. At the start of 2001 he successfully defended his Australian Open crown and ended the year ranked number 3.

2002 was a year of mixed emotions for Agassi, injury forced him out of the Australian Open, leaving him unable to defend his title, and later in the year the US Open saw the last competitive match against Pete Sampras, with Sampras beating Agassi in a four set final, Sampras ending his career after the match with a 20-14 victory in the pairs 34 competitive matches.

In 2003 Agassi became both the youngest player and the oldest to win the annual Key Biscayne title, at 19 and 32 respectively. The same year, after victory in the Queen’s club championships he became the oldest player ever to be ranked number one in the world at the ripe old age of 33 years and 13 days.

The next Grand Slam final Agassi reached was in the US Open in 2005, which he lost to the Swiss genius Roger Federer in four sets, and he finished the year ranked number 7 in the world. At this time he ended his 17 year sponsorship deal with Nike and signed up with Adidas, reportedly because Nike were unwilling to donate to Agassi’s charities, whereas Adidas were a lot more generous.

Plagued with injuries throughout 2006, Agassi played hardly any competitive tennis, and he withdrew from several events because of back injury, ankle injury and other aches and pains, the result of which was that he dropped out of the top ten for the last time.

After a third round loss to Rafael Nadal during Wimbledon in 2006, Agassi announced that he would retire after the US Open. With high expectations of a spectacular final tournament, Agassi’s run in the US Open was cut short by German Benjamin Becker and after the match Agassi received a teary 8 minute standing ovation from an appreciative crowd.

After such a stellar career it was thoroughly deserved.