Agassi, Andre
Tennis
b. April 29, 1970, Las Vegas, NV
Although his talent and athletic ability were obvious, many tennis writers and fans wondered for a time if Agassi was more style than substances. With his long blond hair and his fluorescent outfits, he was famous, or notorious, for several years before he won a major title. Some people, including Agassi, wondered if he would ever win one of the grand slam events until he finally broke through at Wimbledon in 1992.
Agassi turned professional in 1986, shortly after his sixteenth birthday, and he won the last tournament of that year and the first tournament of 1988. He advanced from 25th to 4th in the computer rankings by winning six championships in 1988. Twice he went to the semi-finals of a grand slam event, losing both times, to Mats Wilander in an exciting five-set match at the French Open and to Ivan Lendl in four sets at the U. S. Open.
However, he didn't win a single tournament in 1989 and reached the finals only once, in the Italian Open. Agassi beat Germany's Boris Becker in the semi-finals of the 1990 U. S. Open, but lost to Pete Sampras in the final match, and he was beaten by little-known Andres Gomez in French Open final.
His frustrations reached a peak in 1991, when he lost to Jim Courier in the semi-finals of the U. S. Open. Until then, Agassi had been the most successful graduate of the Bollettieri Tennis Academy in Florida, but he was now ranked behind his classmate Courier.
After losing in the first round in 1987, Agassi drew criticism for passing up Wimbledon three years in a row. The reason he gave was that he wasn't allowed to wear his colorful outfits there, but many critics felt he was simply afraid of repeated failure.
He returned to Wimbledon in 1991 and was seeded only 12th in 1992. Agassi upset Boris Becker in the quarter-final and John McEnroe in the semi-final, then met Goran Ivanisevic of Croatia, the eighth seed. Ivanisevic was favored in part because his serve and volley style is better suited to the grass at Wimbledon than Agassi's baseline bashing style.
Despite 37 aces by Ivanisevic, Agassi won a dramatic five-set match and sounded remarkably humble after his victory. "To do it here is more than I could ask for," he said. "If my career was over tomorrow, I had a lot more than I deserved."
After a poor year in 1993, Agassi hired a new coach, Brad Gilbert, and in 1994 he became first unseeded player since 1930 to win the U. S. Open, beating six seeded opponents, including Michael Stich in a four-set final.
Agassi won his third grand slam title, the Australian Open, in 1995, when he reached the finals of 11 tournaments, winning 7, and had a 73-9 record. His 26-match winning streak was broken by Pete Sampras in the U.S. Open final.
In 1996, Agassi won the singles gold medal in the Atlanta Olympics and took the Lipton championship in Key Biscayne for the third time, but he lost to Michael Chang in the semi-finals of U.S. Open.
Agassi was sidelined with a wrist injury for most of the 1997 season, but he won four ATP tournaments in 1998.
After losing the first two sets to Andrei Medvedev in the 1999 French Open finals, Agassi came back to win the tournament, becoming only the fifth male player in history to complete a career grand slam.
Agassi lost to Sampras in the Wimbledon finals at Wimbledon, but he claimed his fifth grand slam title by beating Todd Martin for the U.S. Open championship.
That year culminated in one of the greatest resurgences in tennis history. After having been ranked 141st in the world at the end of the 1997, Agassi climbed into the top ranking at the end of 1999, despite losing to Sampras in the ATP World Championship title match.
Agassi won two straight Australian Open championships, in 2000, and 2001, giving him a total so far of seven Grand Slam title. Through 2001, he had won 49 career singles championships and $23,502,790 in prize money. He had a record of 689 wins and 220 losses in singles matches.