Andre calls time - A retrospective
Many thought he would call an end to his career this time last year, when, although pushing his body to the limit, and being the oldest competitor in over three decades, he was defeated by the current star of tennis - Roger Federer - in the US Open final. That day typified Andre Agassi’s mettle, more so than his recent US Open defeat to Billy Becker, a little-known German qualifier. Agassi, the tennis legend who became one of only five men to have won all four grand slams, fought with characteristic tenacity against the present undisputed world number one, and almost achieved a fairytale victory in front of 23,000 adoring fans at the Arthur Ashe Stadium. Now, a year on, Agassi has had enough.
Agassi’s last grand slam final, a year ago, and his sixth at Flushing Meadows – the world's richest single sporting event – was held on the fourth anniversary of the horrific 9/11 attacks. After a solemn day in New York, Agassi’s performance was propelled by an emotional and jingoistic crowd, all willing the 35-year-old former world number one to defy the march of time, and overcome the stacked odds, to a victory over the world’s dominant Swiss tennis star, Roger Federer.
At one set all, 4-2 and 30-0 up, the crowd were gripped by the prospect of their hero edging a set closer to his ninth grand slam title. However, the superlative Federer slipped into a higher gear and played his opponent, 12 years his senior, off the court with exquisite ground strokes.
Agassi, who had considered ending his career when his sciatica flared up in the first round of the French Open earlier in that year, had, since then, had four cortisone shots in the spine, one more than is usually advised by doctors. As he congratulated Federer, “the best I’ve ever played against”, on his 6-3, 2-6, 7-6, 6-1 victory, Agassi made a salute to the crowd, perhaps as a farewell. Emotionally stirred, he said “I just want to thank you guys for the last twenty years”, causing many to wonder whether they would see their battling hero on court again.
Federer was the first to compliment Agassi. “To play him in this situation, with him towards the end of his career and me on the top of my game - I knew that this was going to be very special. I look up to him because he's been around so long with great results. There's a lot of respect from my side.”
It seemed fitting that Federer, who after the final in September had won 23 consecutive finals with a style, focus and athleticism that typifies a new generation of tennis player, showed such reverence towards the elder statesman, Agassi. “It’s the most special one for me, to play Andre in the final of the US Open. He’s one of the only living legends in tennis we still have”, said Federer, who became the first man in the Open era to win Wimbledon and the US Open back-to-back in consecutive years. Similarly, Agassi described the type of game that Federer plays as paving the way for tennis in the twenty-first century. “He plays the game in a very special way. I haven’t seen it before.”
Two decades before it had been a fresh-faced Andre Agassi who had won similar plaudits from players, fans and pundits alike. Agassi, whose career earnings total $30 million, has eight grand slams, and over 60 tournament titles under his belt. He is one of only five players in tennis history to have won the men’s singles titles at all four of the grand slam events over the course of his career. Undoubtedly one of the greatest players of all time, he is also arguably the most popular.
Christened Andre Kirk Agassi, he was born and raised in Las Vegas, Nevada, and being the most talented of his siblings, became the focus of his sporting father’s attention. Emmanuel ‘Mike’ Agassi, ethnically half Armenian and half Assyrian, was an Iranian Olympic Boxer at the 1948 and 1952 Games, before emigrating to the United States. When his father became a U.S. citizen, he changed his family name from the Armenian Agassian to Agassi.
Having given a two year old Andre a full-size tennis racket, tennis-mad Mike encouraged his four children to practice. Growing up, he and his siblings would hit 3,000 balls a day, everyday. By the age of ten, Agassi was beating fellow precocious US talents including Pete Sampras, Jim Courier and Michael Chang. When he was 14 years old, he was enrolled in the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy in Florida.
Turning professional in 1986, shortly after his sixteenth birthday, Agassi went on to win the last tournament of the 1987 season (Itaparica, Brazil) and the first of the next (Memphis). His total of six tournament wins in the 1988 season propelled him from 25th to 4th in the world rankings. By December 1988, an 18 year old Agassi had surpassed $2 million in career prize money, and in achieving this in only 43 tournaments he became the quickest player in history to do so. Twice in that year he reached the semi-finals of a Grand Slam, only to lose to more experienced professionals. In the French Open he lost in a thrilling five set match to Mats Wilander, and in the US Open he lost to Ivan Lendl in four sets.
In spite of his superb talent, Agassi refused to adhere to the traditional rules of tennis correctness. He embraced a rebel image, growing his hair to rock-star length, sporting an earring, and wearing colourful shirts that pushed tennis’ strict sartorial boundaries. However, his bad boy image proved popular with both corporate sponsors and female fans worldwide. Millions of dollars worth of endorsement deals rolled in and he was seen on the arm of a number of women, including Barbra Streisand.
The colourful Agassi quickly gained a reputation on the tour for exceptional natural fitness, thus allowing him to outlast most players over the course of a long match. His fitness and athleticism were augmented by a crisp backhand and a chilling ability to return serves, both usually triggered from the baseline.
Agassi, although known as a baseline player, often made contact with the ball inside the baseline, unlike most baseliners who strike the ball between 4 to 8 feet behind the baseline. Never blessed with the quickest serve, he relied on guile and variation. Even in the twilight of his long career, Agassi is still arguably the best service returner in the game. For example when fellow American Andy Roddick boomed one of the fastest ever serves to Agassi – 149 mph (240 km/h) – he was able to return it into play.
Agassi chose not to play at Wimbledon from 1988-90, and publicly stated that he did not wish to play because of the event’s traditionalism, particularly its predominantly-white dress code which players at the event are required to follow. Many observers at the time speculated that Agassi’s real motivation was that his strong baseline game would not be suited to Wimbledon's grass court surface.
Agassi reached his first Grand Slam final in 1990 at the French Open, where he was defeated in four sets by the veteran, Andrés Gómez. Later that year he lost in the final of the US Open to Pete Sampras. The competition between the two young American players became the dominant rivalry in tennis over the rest of the decade. In 1991, Agassi reached his second consecutive French Open final where he faced his former Bollettieri Academy-mate, Jim Courier. Courier emerged the victor in a dramatic rain-interrupted five-set final.
Agassi decided to play at Wimbledon in 1991, leading to weeks of speculation in the media about what he would wear. He eventually emerged for the first round in a completely white outfit. Reaching the quarter-finals at this, his first attempt, in 1992 he went all the way in a dramatic five-set final with Goran Ivanišević, breaking his Grand Slam duck. Despite 37 aces by Ivanišević and Agassi’s baseline tactics, supposedly unsuited to grass, he was victorious, and displayed a remarkable humility 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.” Fittingly, Agassi was awarded the BBC’s Overseas Sports Personality Award at the end of 1992.
Following injuries and subsequent wrist surgery in 1993, Agassi came back strongly in 1994 and won the US Open, beating Michael Stich in the final. En route to the final he defeated five seeded players and became the first unseeded champion since Fred Stolle in 1966. He then captured his first Australian Open title in 1995, beating Sampras in four-sets. He won a career record seven titles that year and he became world number one for the first time in his career in April, holding the position for 30 weeks on that occasion. Agassi also compiled a career-best 26-match winning streak during the summer hard-court circuit, which was ended by Sampras in the final of the US Open. In 1996 Agassi won the men's singles Gold Medal at the Olympic Games in Atlanta, beating Sergi Bruguera of Spain in straight sets in the final.
1997 was a poor year for Agassi. He won no top-level titles and in November his ranking sank to number 141 in the world. His form was perhaps affected by the intense publicity surrounding his high-profile, turbulent relationship and marriage to actress Brooke Shields, whom he had married in California on April 19, 1997.
“I was playing a lot of golf, going out a lot, enjoying Brooke's world,” said Agassi. “It was nice not to have the responsibility I've known since I was a child.” However, the charms of Hollywood soon wore thin and the couple divorced amicably just ten days shy of their two-year wedding anniversary.
Realising he missed playing competitive tennis, Agassi started on a much-chronicled weight training programme and diet and began training with a purpose. He shaved his balding head, began a rigorous conditioning program, and worked his way back up the rankings by playing in Challenger Series tournaments (a circuit for professional players ranked outside the world's top 50). Perhaps most remarkably, the one-time rebel emerged as a gracious and thoughtful athlete, looked up to by younger players. After winning matches, he took to bowing and blowing two-handed kisses to spectators on each side of the court, a gesture seen as a rather humble acknowledgment of their support for him and for tennis.
In 1998, Agassi won five titles and leapt from No. 122 on the rankings at the start of the year, to No. 6 at the end of it, making it the highest jump into the Top 10 by any player. He won five titles in ten finals, and finished runner-up at the Miami Masters.
Agassi entered the history books in 1999, nearing the age of 30, when he beat Andrei Medvedev in a five-set French Open final to become only the fifth male player to have won all four Grand Slam singles titles (a feat last achieved in the 1960s by Roy Emerson), whilst also becoming the only player besides German tennis star, Steffi Graf, to win all four plus an Olympic gold medal for singles. He followed that up by reaching the Wimbledon final, where he lost to Sampras. He then won the US Open, beating Todd Martin in five sets in the final, and finished the year ranked the world number one.
Agassi and Graf began dating, and two years later the couple announced they were expecting their first child. The high-profile pair married on October 22, 2001, in a private ceremony in Las Vegas. Steffi Graf gave birth to a baby boy, Jaden Gil, just four days later. In October 2003 the happy couple announced the birth of their second child, a girl whom they have called Jaz Elle.
With a growing family to look after, and with the bones beginning to creak, people began speculating when Andre Agassi would retire. Defying his age, and obviously wanting to play for as long as possible, Agassi’s fans can be certain that their hero did not retire without good reason.
After his final defeat last September he hinted, perhaps, that he would go on for just one more year. “Over the last 20 years I’ve come full circle. It’s been an amazing journey and discovery of each other as I’ve grown up out here. To be here at an age where I can take in that sort of love and be at an age where I can embrace it is a tremendous feeling. As of now, my intention is to keep working and keep doing what it is I do. You know, the only thing better than the last 20 years will be the last 21 years.”
Andre Agassi was given an emotional standing ovation yesterday, and he couldn’t hold back the tears, bawling uncontrollably as he waved a fond farewell to the fans who couldn’t fail to adore his honesty. “The love was rising up from the crowd like a waterfall.” The tennis world will sorely miss such a charismatic character whose personality and popularity has influenced crowds and touched an emotional nerve the world over. However, given the genetic inheritance of two record-breaking tennis greats in Agassi and Graf, it is likely that we have not heard the last of the Agassi tennis dynasty.
Many thought he would call an end to his career this time last year, when, although pushing his body to the limit, and being the oldest competitor in over three decades, he was defeated by the current star of tennis - Roger Federer - in the US Open final. That day typified Andre Agassi’s mettle, more so than his recent US Open defeat to Billy Becker, a little-known German qualifier. Agassi, the tennis legend who became one of only five men to have won all four grand slams, fought with characteristic tenacity against the present undisputed world number one, and almost achieved a fairytale victory in front of 23,000 adoring fans at the Arthur Ashe Stadium. Now, a year on, Agassi has had enough.
Agassi’s last grand slam final, a year ago, and his sixth at Flushing Meadows – the world's richest single sporting event – was held on the fourth anniversary of the horrific 9/11 attacks. After a solemn day in New York, Agassi’s performance was propelled by an emotional and jingoistic crowd, all willing the 35-year-old former world number one to defy the march of time, and overcome the stacked odds, to a victory over the world’s dominant Swiss tennis star, Roger Federer.
At one set all, 4-2 and 30-0 up, the crowd were gripped by the prospect of their hero edging a set closer to his ninth grand slam title. However, the superlative Federer slipped into a higher gear and played his opponent, 12 years his senior, off the court with exquisite ground strokes.
Agassi, who had considered ending his career when his sciatica flared up in the first round of the French Open earlier in that year, had, since then, had four cortisone shots in the spine, one more than is usually advised by doctors. As he congratulated Federer, “the best I’ve ever played against”, on his 6-3, 2-6, 7-6, 6-1 victory, Agassi made a salute to the crowd, perhaps as a farewell. Emotionally stirred, he said “I just want to thank you guys for the last twenty years”, causing many to wonder whether they would see their battling hero on court again.
Federer was the first to compliment Agassi. “To play him in this situation, with him towards the end of his career and me on the top of my game - I knew that this was going to be very special. I look up to him because he's been around so long with great results. There's a lot of respect from my side.”
It seemed fitting that Federer, who after the final in September had won 23 consecutive finals with a style, focus and athleticism that typifies a new generation of tennis player, showed such reverence towards the elder statesman, Agassi. “It’s the most special one for me, to play Andre in the final of the US Open. He’s one of the only living legends in tennis we still have”, said Federer, who became the first man in the Open era to win Wimbledon and the US Open back-to-back in consecutive years. Similarly, Agassi described the type of game that Federer plays as paving the way for tennis in the twenty-first century. “He plays the game in a very special way. I haven’t seen it before.”
Two decades before it had been a fresh-faced Andre Agassi who had won similar plaudits from players, fans and pundits alike. Agassi, whose career earnings total $30 million, has eight grand slams, and over 60 tournament titles under his belt. He is one of only five players in tennis history to have won the men’s singles titles at all four of the grand slam events over the course of his career. Undoubtedly one of the greatest players of all time, he is also arguably the most popular.
Christened Andre Kirk Agassi, he was born and raised in Las Vegas, Nevada, and being the most talented of his siblings, became the focus of his sporting father’s attention. Emmanuel ‘Mike’ Agassi, ethnically half Armenian and half Assyrian, was an Iranian Olympic Boxer at the 1948 and 1952 Games, before emigrating to the United States. When his father became a U.S. citizen, he changed his family name from the Armenian Agassian to Agassi.
Having given a two year old Andre a full-size tennis racket, tennis-mad Mike encouraged his four children to practice. Growing up, he and his siblings would hit 3,000 balls a day, everyday. By the age of ten, Agassi was beating fellow precocious US talents including Pete Sampras, Jim Courier and Michael Chang. When he was 14 years old, he was enrolled in the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy in Florida.
Turning professional in 1986, shortly after his sixteenth birthday, Agassi went on to win the last tournament of the 1987 season (Itaparica, Brazil) and the first of the next (Memphis). His total of six tournament wins in the 1988 season propelled him from 25th to 4th in the world rankings. By December 1988, an 18 year old Agassi had surpassed $2 million in career prize money, and in achieving this in only 43 tournaments he became the quickest player in history to do so. Twice in that year he reached the semi-finals of a Grand Slam, only to lose to more experienced professionals. In the French Open he lost in a thrilling five set match to Mats Wilander, and in the US Open he lost to Ivan Lendl in four sets.
In spite of his superb talent, Agassi refused to adhere to the traditional rules of tennis correctness. He embraced a rebel image, growing his hair to rock-star length, sporting an earring, and wearing colourful shirts that pushed tennis’ strict sartorial boundaries. However, his bad boy image proved popular with both corporate sponsors and female fans worldwide. Millions of dollars worth of endorsement deals rolled in and he was seen on the arm of a number of women, including Barbra Streisand.
The colourful Agassi quickly gained a reputation on the tour for exceptional natural fitness, thus allowing him to outlast most players over the course of a long match. His fitness and athleticism were augmented by a crisp backhand and a chilling ability to return serves, both usually triggered from the baseline.
Agassi, although known as a baseline player, often made contact with the ball inside the baseline, unlike most baseliners who strike the ball between 4 to 8 feet behind the baseline. Never blessed with the quickest serve, he relied on guile and variation. Even in the twilight of his long career, Agassi is still arguably the best service returner in the game. For example when fellow American Andy Roddick boomed one of the fastest ever serves to Agassi – 149 mph (240 km/h) – he was able to return it into play.
Agassi chose not to play at Wimbledon from 1988-90, and publicly stated that he did not wish to play because of the event’s traditionalism, particularly its predominantly-white dress code which players at the event are required to follow. Many observers at the time speculated that Agassi’s real motivation was that his strong baseline game would not be suited to Wimbledon's grass court surface.
Agassi reached his first Grand Slam final in 1990 at the French Open, where he was defeated in four sets by the veteran, Andrés Gómez. Later that year he lost in the final of the US Open to Pete Sampras. The competition between the two young American players became the dominant rivalry in tennis over the rest of the decade. In 1991, Agassi reached his second consecutive French Open final where he faced his former Bollettieri Academy-mate, Jim Courier. Courier emerged the victor in a dramatic rain-interrupted five-set final.
Agassi decided to play at Wimbledon in 1991, leading to weeks of speculation in the media about what he would wear. He eventually emerged for the first round in a completely white outfit. Reaching the quarter-finals at this, his first attempt, in 1992 he went all the way in a dramatic five-set final with Goran Ivanišević, breaking his Grand Slam duck. Despite 37 aces by Ivanišević and Agassi’s baseline tactics, supposedly unsuited to grass, he was victorious, and displayed a remarkable humility 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.” Fittingly, Agassi was awarded the BBC’s Overseas Sports Personality Award at the end of 1992.
Following injuries and subsequent wrist surgery in 1993, Agassi came back strongly in 1994 and won the US Open, beating Michael Stich in the final. En route to the final he defeated five seeded players and became the first unseeded champion since Fred Stolle in 1966. He then captured his first Australian Open title in 1995, beating Sampras in four-sets. He won a career record seven titles that year and he became world number one for the first time in his career in April, holding the position for 30 weeks on that occasion. Agassi also compiled a career-best 26-match winning streak during the summer hard-court circuit, which was ended by Sampras in the final of the US Open. In 1996 Agassi won the men's singles Gold Medal at the Olympic Games in Atlanta, beating Sergi Bruguera of Spain in straight sets in the final.
1997 was a poor year for Agassi. He won no top-level titles and in November his ranking sank to number 141 in the world. His form was perhaps affected by the intense publicity surrounding his high-profile, turbulent relationship and marriage to actress Brooke Shields, whom he had married in California on April 19, 1997.
“I was playing a lot of golf, going out a lot, enjoying Brooke's world,” said Agassi. “It was nice not to have the responsibility I've known since I was a child.” However, the charms of Hollywood soon wore thin and the couple divorced amicably just ten days shy of their two-year wedding anniversary.
Realising he missed playing competitive tennis, Agassi started on a much-chronicled weight training programme and diet and began training with a purpose. He shaved his balding head, began a rigorous conditioning program, and worked his way back up the rankings by playing in Challenger Series tournaments (a circuit for professional players ranked outside the world's top 50). Perhaps most remarkably, the one-time rebel emerged as a gracious and thoughtful athlete, looked up to by younger players. After winning matches, he took to bowing and blowing two-handed kisses to spectators on each side of the court, a gesture seen as a rather humble acknowledgment of their support for him and for tennis.
In 1998, Agassi won five titles and leapt from No. 122 on the rankings at the start of the year, to No. 6 at the end of it, making it the highest jump into the Top 10 by any player. He won five titles in ten finals, and finished runner-up at the Miami Masters.
Agassi entered the history books in 1999, nearing the age of 30, when he beat Andrei Medvedev in a five-set French Open final to become only the fifth male player to have won all four Grand Slam singles titles (a feat last achieved in the 1960s by Roy Emerson), whilst also becoming the only player besides German tennis star, Steffi Graf, to win all four plus an Olympic gold medal for singles. He followed that up by reaching the Wimbledon final, where he lost to Sampras. He then won the US Open, beating Todd Martin in five sets in the final, and finished the year ranked the world number one.
Agassi and Graf began dating, and two years later the couple announced they were expecting their first child. The high-profile pair married on October 22, 2001, in a private ceremony in Las Vegas. Steffi Graf gave birth to a baby boy, Jaden Gil, just four days later. In October 2003 the happy couple announced the birth of their second child, a girl whom they have called Jaz Elle.
With a growing family to look after, and with the bones beginning to creak, people began speculating when Andre Agassi would retire. Defying his age, and obviously wanting to play for as long as possible, Agassi’s fans can be certain that their hero did not retire without good reason.
After his final defeat last September he hinted, perhaps, that he would go on for just one more year. “Over the last 20 years I’ve come full circle. It’s been an amazing journey and discovery of each other as I’ve grown up out here. To be here at an age where I can take in that sort of love and be at an age where I can embrace it is a tremendous feeling. As of now, my intention is to keep working and keep doing what it is I do. You know, the only thing better than the last 20 years will be the last 21 years.”
Andre Agassi was given an emotional standing ovation yesterday, and he couldn’t hold back the tears, bawling uncontrollably as he waved a fond farewell to the fans who couldn’t fail to adore his honesty. “The love was rising up from the crowd like a waterfall.” The tennis world will sorely miss such a charismatic character whose personality and popularity has influenced crowds and touched an emotional nerve the world over. However, given the genetic inheritance of two record-breaking tennis greats in Agassi and Graf, it is likely that we have not heard the last of the Agassi tennis dynasty.
Labels: Andre Agassi, Roger Federer, Tennis, US Open
