Andre Agassi Sportscentury

no kazoo what neck is kind of flip he knew that he was in trouble and the whole Academy is looking at me is next boy I had to be sort of tough but underneath Andre knew he was home free he was my boy just two days after his 16th birthday Agassiz turned pro among his baggage was an attitude as raw and fragile as his game I'm gonna play a couple of games and I'm like oh man let that thing hit my head and I'm saying he's serious he's trying to hit me visca yeah he can't pay though are you just trying to throw as hard as you can when I broke out in the professional world I just there was a there was a liberation that came with it and a freedom that I really hadn't known the part that was most difficult about it was a realization that like this is like succeed or fail this is lifer or no life this is what am I going to do if I don't succeed at tennis when he first went to Wimbledon in 1987 they put him on a back court which he didn't like very much against allele account and he was beaten in less than an hour and he didn't come back for years that year I said to I'll see you at Wimbledon he said you're not gonna see me at Wimble and I said what do you mean Hydra that's the Super Bowl of our game he said I don't like grass and I don't like the English and I'm not gonna be there and I said I'm sure you will be but he wasn't he just went against everything that people expected want to get yucks to go and play in Hong Kong just didn't want to do it just my personal week off in Vegas is more important than going to play for a million bucks plus prize money Andre Agassi is clearly the biggest moneymaker money generator in tennis so to pay him three hundred and fifty thousand to show at a tournament where your prize money may be six hundred thousand just makes excellent financial sense traveling on the tour the hardest part would be keeping perspective when the whole world is kissing your ass basically playing to a new tennis demographic teenage girls Agassi won six singles titles in 1988 his second full year on the tour Madison Avenue had a huge crush on him but some members of the media were outraged there's a segment of hardcore old school sports writers who are irritated by him in the same way that people who struggle to get good grades in school hate the guy who gets AIDS without studying I nearly threw up when I heard him in 1990 at the US Open say the most thrilling moment he had had on a tennis court was when he debuted his new lime-green outfit of Nike where he waived the crowd he bowed to all four corners of the cold he blew kisses he behaved in a way that suggested not only didn't love what he was doing but he loved being Andre Agassi I first really saw Augustin went and played for the u.s. Davis Cup against Argentina and it was typical and revealing and that he played exceptionally well with beating pun height a and had even the Argentine crowd in the palm of his hand fans are trying to get away my name he was winning everybody over but and he was picking apart before Argentine riding a mounting wave of celebrity Agassi made a rare mistake misread the crowd could I just watch that correctly did Agassi just catch that ball Andrey catches a ball and thinks it's this sort of magnanimous gesture um you know fellowship and friendship and the true spirit of Davis Cup and of course it is a deep deep insult for these are sometimes thanks has totally turned them against he had the fans in your pocket except for that one moment you understand why you lost him when you caught the ball to end the game well I don't know I didn't B I lost so much I just think they were they were kind of a disappointed that they felt I that they knew that I felt I had to match one we wrote that we hated it this was showmanship but at heart we loved it cuz that's all we wrote about it I mean Davis Cup who cared about Davis Cup but a guy catching a guy serving Davis Cup now that was great while the press looked for more character Agassi provided arrogance at the 1990 French Open the 3rd seed was upset in the final by Andres Gomez and three months later he lost to Pete Sampras for the US Open title after five years on tour Agassi was still winless and majors nobody saw that coming in 1990 including Sampras himself I thought that he'd beat Agassi who was the favorite beat him very easily kicked his butt in the words of Andre Agassi uh when you can hit a serve a hundred and twenty on the lines there's not a whole lot you can do about it during the 1991 French Open Agassi was in command against his former Academy roommate Jim Courier after winning the first set Agassi was up a break in the second when the rains came I guess Andre was beating the tar out of Jim the rain delay came of rain without the rain delay I'd have been struggling I don't know if I would have been able to turn that around I don't think I would have yeah yeah eyes shifted where I was standing to receive Andre serve on Jose's advice zaga see at love curries coach said to Jim get off the baseline move back 10 to 15 feet Andre didn't realise I guess he looks impatient out of me he thinks he's gonna come out now after the rain delay it just last threw her off the court and it's not happening he was upset at Nick because he felt like he got outcoached I know it was hard match for him to swallow I know it was tough I'm sure he had a soul-searching period there for a while after that he needed a major to establish credibility and because he was being treated like someone who'd won majors financially and the stardom wise he was already on that level but he didn't have the hard way you know at that stage of my career cuz I questioned it too I didn't know if I could win and done may I guess in 1991 after snubbing Wimbledon for three years Agassi bowed to tradition and wore tennis whites on the old grass courts although we only reached the quarterfinals Agassi was back the next year with his lifestyle still running high he had set himself up for another failure I got a phone call at 3 o'clock in the morning what do you want Andre he's I haven't his sister French he's let's go down to Boca we play golf at 4 o'clock he said maybe bet he'll few ball pppp let's go he didn't live link not one leg after dispatching the game's aging superbrat in the semifinals Agassiz faced the most powerful server in tennis Gore an even Issa vich wrote a record 169 aces into the championship I was in that camp basically because I could serve candid and right hand and I'm bombing these lefties just to try to get him to the 140 ranked bombing him and he just picking it up just moved and after like 15 20 minutes done to get rid of a lot of very unattractive weight today they say he can't come from behind he can't play on grass he chokes in the big ones the Aces kept flying but Andre never flinched he just eat edge did a little waiting for his opportunity and he got it I got down the locker-room a before anyone else was there and I remember him holding the trophy like a newborn baby and the gold trophy was reflecting into his eyes and you could see Newcombe and Laver and McEnroe go shocked that he finally crossed that barrier and won I told him how glad I was a he won Wimbledon and and he told me you know that he was sorry that he hadn't congratulated me before he was happy that I had won as well but it was almost like he needed to win that major before he could say it although he treasured his first major championship Agassiz seemed to value little else living only for the moment nobody could tell him what to do and he would go out there and give pizzas and McDonald's the French Open I remember he had people running out to Burger King you know he knew nothing about nutrition or at least didn't believe in it nothing symbolized agassi's early career better than his flamboyance at Wimbledon in 1993 with a star-studded following that included his close friend Barbara Streisand Agassi showed lots of flash but no commitment that Wimbledon is probably the single greatest example of the old Andre disorganized emotionally a disorganized professionally he's overweight Streisand's in the box so there's chaos in the box then there's the chest hair you tell us finally why your forehead it makes me a little more aerodynamic out there that it was I suppose a little indicative of just this circus going on around the guy it was a mess Paula Terry had kind of had enough of the whole deal and took a walk Nick wrote him a letter and said that's it basically we're done if you don't want to commit yourself to this game close to 100% I don't want to be your coach hey big new the ATP tried to jazz the sport up and they played music to introduce the players they allowed fans to shuffle around during change overs why don't we have you know swimsuit models come out in between games and model for everybody to keep him excited ironically enough it was Andre Agassi Oh mr. images everything mr. Las Vegas who took the conservative stances of listen the game is fine as it is this is a joke I just I can't even believe it it's cars the game Andre is a mass of contradictions he swears on the court and he is very docile off the court but Andre is first and foremost is a seeker and I think that's really what he's always been his career he was looking for his personality for a long time he's read all kinds of different philosophy books he's experimented with all kinds of different religions he took instruction in the Catholic faith he was a born-again Christian for a while he's been all over the map basically this kid decided all on his own in the 90s I'm tired of being a brat I'm tired of being a little I'm tired of playing bad tennis I want to be a better man and he went and he got himself a therapist he hired his longtime childhood best friend as his money manager and said put me on a budget and he settled down and charted his own course as a tennis player as well after recovering from wrist surgery in late 1993 Andre Agassi looked for someone to lead him across the Great Divide between promise and delivery Brad Gilbert had a book signing in Cincinnati for his book winning ugly and I went up and grabbed the book and it became pretty clear pretty quickly that these two were absolutely meant to be together it just started you know asked me a lot of questions about the direction of Andres tennis and where he was going and what I thought about it Brad had to kind of think his way through matches were on dreams just kind of hitting his way through matches so you have the ultimate kind of overachiever Brad Gilbert and here's Andre the underachiever and I think it was a good marriage Agassi's new entourage included his blue collar coach that actress Brooke Shields Andre and Brooke met through a friend and they started faxing each other letters they both were in front of the public eye at a very young age and they understood the pressures of the spotlight at the 1994 US Open Broadway's biggest hit was unseeded but the show went on in Andres whole lot of things hey I don't care where they seeping you know she put me in the draw I got a beat seven people that's what I'm gonna try to do and that was his attitude is going into that us I'm seated right number 20 coming in so I'll just stick me in that draw you know and let me work it out let me figure it out the following January Agassiz was the rage at his first Australian Open when he made a new fashion statement but his game which he had so often neglected was as sharp as his buzz cut at a time with tennis sorely needed it Agassi ignited a rivalry by beating Sampras first third major with our different personalities in the different games and on and on I mean it was just a great clash and I keep loaded up with the commercials and stuff this looks pretty good stuff right here and that's what the game really needs to have some sort of robbery and you know can take up two different guys than men under it's not like to hang out a lot together but they're never gonna say anything bad about each other and I think they're they both feel it's a measuring stick to see how they're playing and they like the challenge of playing each other Sam person Agassi needed each other though to be great players I really believe that I think it's Amber's wedding around I think Agassi would have quit long ago I think a boundary had been there I think Sampras for the left B game they of having alternating good years and bad years 96 was a bad one except for the Summer Olympics in Atlanta it wasn't the strongest field in Atlanta and Andre struggled to win there clearly aside from the Olympics that year tennis wasn't his top priority it was April of 1997 he had just got back from his honeymoon Brooke Shields and his first tournament was in Atlanta he lost in the second round he was pretty upset by and he jumps in a car he leaves he doesn't talk to the media you just tell he was torn he was having a lot of fun getting a break from Tennessee was with Brooke he was playing golf he was just enjoying himself basically he just wasn't in shape he'd stand in the middle of the court he tried to slap winners and I think part of that was that he didn't want to reach that extra ball she wanted more her studio and he sounds was she playing tennis and coach says look gonna practice for four hours of hot Sun in Las Vegas and he said I'm going to lunch with my wife Brooke Shields are you crazy you just didn't know if he wanted to be playing tennis nothing he was shortly after that that he'd really fell off the map and eventually fell out of the top 100 for years and years and years people have accused him of having his priorities in the wrong order everyone's always questioned his commitment to the tennis when he let his ranking drop and when he was working at that marriage I think some of us sat around and said you know what that guy's got his priorities in exactly the right place you know to me he was just trying to be a good husband in the first 11 months of 1997 Agassi took his longest fall from number 8 to 140 first he had hit the nadir of his tennis career every time he would go from number one or number two or number five in the world down to sixty or forty I would watch him go with us you know it's no way he's coming back again my thoughts were that it's too bad it's a career that could have been great but he obviously has gone off center lost his equilibrium whether it's marriage whatever it is he's had enough but Agassiz defied the popular wisdom and reinvented himself in a most unusual way on the unheralded courts of the Tor Challenger circuit there's never been a player off of Agassi stature play in one of those tournaments challenger events are just the minor leagues where you can get ATP to a points to where then you can qualify for the major Tour it's unbelievable when you think of it he could have easily taken wildcards in events because he was such a big star but he wanted to go back and fight his way up and he's age 27 he's going through when we now know in retrospect he's going through a marriage that's breaking up other players quietly were wondering if this were at the end it took me a lot of time and a lot of energy to realize I couldn't balance it all and that realization brings about a transition in life that left me very disheartened I think that he became a man on the process of marrying and divorcing and I think experiencing the pain of that breakup and I think in his case he genuinely believes that some of that's been good for him it certainly made him no longer afraid of the pressures of tennis I think once you've experienced the failure of a marriage a failure on the tennis court is so minut in comparison the resurrection of Agassi on the court coincided with the dissolution of his marriage to Brooke Shields by the end of 1998 he had jumped from number 122 to six four months later his divorce was final at the French Open he chased a prize he had yet to capture in 14 years as a pro coming back in in matches early in the tournament against Clermont he was two points from losing down a couple of sets and a break Tomoya two sets to love down in the final against Medvedev fine gentlemen are we gonna feel afraid or febrile you're gonna feel that there's a certain amount of adversity in your life that would be it well they say that what makes something so worth it when you buy something the person that can just afford it versus a person that has to work for it oh and the truth of the matter is a person that works for it enjoys it more not because they couldn't afford it but because they had to spend more time thinking about it like I've done with pears he I vividly remember turning around and seeing people crying and maybe it was some of the same people that had said in those very same seats ten years earlier when Andra didn't whip they've seen the kid grow into a man they've seen the kid get knocked down and get up as a man you why are the first things he did was called Brooke Shields I think that it's a testament to how kind of solid that relationship was that she was one of the first people he wanted to talk to it's been a lot of years since I've had this opportunity and I never dreamed that I would I would see this day 99 US Open Andres on his way it's us finals playing Todd Martin was that dangerous up there and you look up in the stands second deck at Arthur Ashe Stadium and you know that's like six miles from the court I mean way up there and there's Steffi Andre surprises us again you know Barbra Streisand Brooke Shields now Steffi Gras there are other entourage a--'s but I don't think there's ever been as interesting entourage is as I guess he said it takes another great tennis champion to kind of balance about level amount and that that from for me kind of summarizes where he is in his life Stephanie is the anti Andre of the early 90s she's all business all the time total professional and all substance andre agassi if Grom complimented Agassi he had found a balance of his own you already ranked among five male players in history to win all four Grand Slam events with stepping in his life Agassi 1/3 more majors after all that Andre has done in tennis it's not until he becomes 30 years old that he becomes recognized as the best player in tennis I think prior to that even though he had won major titles and been a famous and great player and been the most for asthmatic player in tennis Pete Sampras had always been considered the top player I think it vindicates a lot of the things he has said in a lot of the things about which people can be cynical about his not having given himself totally to tennis and his having always struggled with the game what it demanded of his life it's always gonna be hard to assess Agassi's role in the history of tennis because he went AWOL so often and in so many dramatic ways so Connelly is he thinking golly what might have happened had he really dedicated himself there's a temptation to say if he had been half as serious about his game ages say 18 to 24 as he was once he hit age 28 he'd be the guy breaking Roy Emerson's record he'd be winning more slams of Pete Sampras and that's a real temptation you have to avoid because what Agassi says and I think it's a legitimate point is listen if I had trained that hard when I was at age 18 I would have burned out I wouldn't have had the success later on in life I talked to Gil Reyes his trainer about that and he said he told Andre he said look the only thing you don't want to do when you've hit your last ball is look back and say you know I could have done this or I could have done that and I didn't now it's funny to see how far he's evolved maybe the guy works like a dog now to get in shape and practice and all those other things it's amazing the change he's got this one hill near Gil's house that they like to go run and sometimes he likes to go run in excess to where you know he loses his lunch I think that he realizes sometimes when you pay the highest price you you get the things that you want he's Agassi unplugged he's taking all his hair off and he's taking all of the flash out of his game the amazing part about his game is how utterly relentless and focused and powerful it is I think movement has become Andres Fork now he just gets the ball so well he sees it so well because of the physical fitness he really Sykes the other guy Andre looks him in the eye and says be gay if you can't for all the pressure to fulfill the tennis world's expectations of him Andre Agassi has done it his way at his pace but in 2000 with his life in order he suffered a double hit in February who learned that his sister Tammy had breast cancer six months later on the eve of the US Open he revealed that his mother Betty had also been stricken with the same disease insisting he was mentally focused the top seed sluggish play proved otherwise he was crushed by unseated Frenchmen are not come on in the second round but as Tammy and Betty recovered so did Agassi's game in January 2001 he won his third Australian Open tying him with John McEnroe at 7 majors as one late bloomer said it takes what it takes the sports century I'm Steve Linden

Channel: mountgirl1

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Keywords: SportsCentury (Award-Winning Work), Andre Agassi (Tennis Player), Tennis (Sport)

Id: iVI3MM4FIqA

Length: 27min 21sec (1641 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 21 2015