Andre Agassi

Tennis Player

• Born: April 29, 1970
• Place of Birth: Las Vegas, Nevada

SPORT: Tennis

Early Life

Andre Kirk Agassi was born on April 29, 1970, in Las Vegas, Nevada, to Emmanuel “Mike” Agassi, a showroom captain at a casino, and Elizabeth “Betty” Dudley Agassi, who worked for the state of Nevada. Agassi was the youngest of four children: He had a brother, Philip, and two sisters, Rita and Tamee. Agassi’s father was born in Iran and had boxed for his native country in the 1948 and 1952 Summer Olympics. He was of Armenian descent and immigrated to the United States during the mid-1950s.

Agassi’s father had been fascinated with the game of tennis since he was a child and hoped that one of his children would one day be a tennis champion. After Mike and Betty married, they settled in Las Vegas because the climate allowed for tennis to be played year-round; all of the Agassi children were taught to play. From the time Andre Agassi was a baby, he was groomed to be a tennis champion. By age two, he was able to serve the ball on a tennis court.

Agassi’s father was confident that hard work and training would make his son into a tennis star. At the age of four, Agassi got the chance to practice with tennis great Jimmy Connors during a Las Vegas hotel exhibition. He practiced relentlessly on the family’s backyard court. At the age of seven, he entered his first tennis tournament, a ten-and-under event. Agassi won this tournament and the next eight tournaments that he entered.

When Agassi was thirteen, his parents decided that he should attend the famous Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy in Bradenton, Florida. However, Agassi had a hard time adjusting to life away from home, and he became moody and difficult to coach. Eventually, he overcame his frustrations, and he grew not only as a tennis player but also as an individual. While he was at the Bollettieri Academy, he continued his academic studies with the help of private tutors. On the tennis court, he was not winning consistently, but Bollettieri believed in Agassi’s potential. The coach persuaded the Nike shoe company to offer Agassi an endorsement contract, and in 1986, Agassi turned professional. With the $25,000 endorsement fee from Nike, he was able to play in all the major tennis tournaments.

Professional Career

At 5 feet 11 inches and 150 pounds, Agassi needed to become stronger if he wanted to compete successfully against seasoned professionals. He was noted for his aggressive play, but his results on the court tended to be erratic. Having been taught at an early age to hit the ball as hard as he could, Agassi needed to learn to control his blistering ground strokes. When he was focused, his ground strokes, especially his return of serve, could defeat even the most seasoned veteran.

In Agassi’s first two professional tournaments, he won more than $11,000. He had the skill and a flair for the game that made stardom a real possibility, but he needed to learn patience. He was still a teenager, and the pressure of professional tennis was making life difficult for him. Andre struggled through much of the first half of 1987, and he contemplated giving up the game. Through the efforts of the professional tennis tour’s traveling minister, Fritz Glauss, Agassi renewed his Christian faith. With a newfound ability to put tennis in perspective, he became more relaxed when he competed. In November 1987, he won his first professional title, beating Luiz Mattar in the finals of the Sul American Open in Itaparica, Brazil.

By the end of 1987, Agassi’s ranking had risen to twenty-fifth in the world. He was finally on the verge of becoming one of the top players on the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) tour. In addition to his aggressive tennis game, Agassi developed a flashy court presence that excited fans. He wore brightly colored clothes that irritated the more conservative elements in the game, but his showmanship caught on with the crowds. Agassi was becoming famous for more than his ability to play tennis. In 1988, he captured six titles and reached the semifinals of both the US Open and the French Open. The ATP and Tennis magazine both named Andre the most improved player of the year in 1988, and his ranking soared all the way to third in the world.

Agassi always seemed to be in the spotlight. Major companies paid him millions of dollars to use and endorse their products. However, Agassi wanted more than to be a celebrity; he wanted to be considered a great tennis player. To earn such recognition, he had to win one of tennis’s four Grand Slam tournaments. In 1990 and 1991, he reached the finals of the French Open but lost on both occasions. In 1990, he also reached the finals of the US Open, where he played another American, Pete Sampras. Agassi was no match for Sampras and his blistering serves, however, and he lost in straight sets. Tennis critics were beginning to wonder if Agassi could win a major tournament.

Because Agassi’s tennis strength was his ground stroke, experts believed that he had his best chance of winning a Grand Slam title on the clay courts of the French Open. Andre, however, surprised everyone at the 1992 Wimbledon Championships by winning his first Grand Slam title on the grass courts of the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club. Grass courts normally favor players who have a big serve, but Agassi’s return of serve was up to the challenge, and he defeated Goran Ivanišević in a dramatic five-set match.

Afterward, Agassi struggled to equal the intensity that won him Wimbledon in 1992. After severing his association with Bollettieri in the summer of 1993, he needed to replenish his strength before he could compete at top form. After having wrist surgery in December 1993, he returned to the tour in early 1994. In September, he reaffirmed his place among the game’s elite by downing Michael Stich for the US Open title.

In 1995, Agassi started the year by capturing a Grand Slam singles title at the Australian Open. He won seven titles and ended the year ranked number two in the world. He won a gold medal in singles at the 1996 Summer Olympics, held in Atlanta, Georgia. A wrist injury sidelined him for most of 1997, and his ranking dropped to 141 in the world.

Agassi showed amazing determination and fought hard to reclaim his position as one of the top players. In 1999, he won the French Open and the US Open. He also reached the finals at Wimbledon. By winning the French Open, he became only the fifth man to win all four Grand Slam singles titles in his career. The other four were Don Budge, Fred Perry, Rod Laver, and Roy Emerson. Agassi ended 1999 as the number-one ranked player in the world. In 2000, he won the Australian Open despite the fact that he had trouble focusing on tennis: Both his older sister and his mother were diagnosed with breast cancer. A car accident in which Agassi hurt his back also hindered his play during the year, but he managed to defend his Australian Open title in 2001.

He won his last Grand Slam title in 2003 at the Australian Open. Because of various debilitating back problems, he retired from professional tennis in 2006. Over the length of his remarkable career, he won eight Grand Slam singles titles and more than $30 million in career earnings. In 1994, he founded the Andre Agassi Charitable Foundation, which raised millions of dollars to help at-risk children of Las Vegas. On October 22, 2001, Agassi married tennis great Steffi Graf. They had two children, Jaden and Jaz.

After retiring, Agassi focused his efforts on his charity, the Andre Agassi Foundation for Education. This group worked to extend educational opportunities to underserved youth in the Las Vegas area. Agassi also continued various business ventures, including his athletic equipment company, BILT by Agassi and Reyes, founded with his friend Gil Reyes. Finally, Agassi was a frequent public speaker, sharing his wisdom on sports and life experience, which he also did in his memoir, Open in 2009.

Summary

Andre Agassi proved himself to be both a great competitor and a great showman. He changed the way many tennis fans viewed the game, making image part of the mix whenever he stepped onto a tennis court. He became only the fifth male tennis player to win a career Grand Slam.

Bibliography

Agassi, Andre. Open: An Autobiography. New York: Knopf, 2009.

Bauman, Paul. Agassi and Ecstasy: The Turbulent Life of Andre Agassi. Chicago: Bonus, 1997.

Beard, Alison. “Life's Work: An Interview with Andre Agassi.” Harvard Business Review, Oct. 2015, hbr.org/2015/10/andre-agassi. Accessed 8 June 2024.

Chambure, Alexandre de. Andre Agassi: Through the Eyes of a Fan. Los Angeles: ICCS, 2007.

Christopher, Matt. On the Court with Andre Agassi. Boston: Little, Brown, 1997.

Cobello, Dominic, with Mike Agassi. The Agassi Story. Toronto: ECW, 2008.

Collins, Bud. Total Tennis: The Ultimate Tennis Encyclopedia. Toronto: Sports Media, 2003.

Knapp, Ron. Andre Agassi: Star Tennis Player. Springfield: Enslow, 1997.

“Our Mission and Work.” Andre Agassi Foundation, agassifoundation.org/about/our-mission-and-work. Accessed 8 June 2024.