Andre Kirk Agassi was born on April 19, 1970 in the city of Las Vegas (USA).
Agassi is the youngest son of Betty and Mike Agassi's 4th children.
Agassi started playing tennis because his father chose this sport for him.
Agassi was only 7 years old and had to hit 2500 balls a day, that is, 912,500 balls a year, with a machine that his father built and that Agassi nicknamed the Dragon.
The tennis court where Agassi used to train was located at the back of his house and it was his father who built it. However, for Agassi, this tennis court was like a prison.
At the age of 8, Agassi started participating in U10 tournaments.
Agassi managed to win the first 7 tournaments in which he participated.
At the local tennis club where Agassi coached his father, he saw Jim Brown, a famous football player, who was looking for a $ 10k cash game that was $ 5k for each player. Then Agassi's father accepted the bet and handed over the $ 5k but the club owner advised Brown not to accept it, as he knew about Agassi's talent.
After that Jim Brown agreed to play the first two sets and then decide how much to bet on the 3rd set.
Agassi won the first two sets 6-3 and 6-3.
With that, brown decides to bet only $ 500 on the 3rd set that he lost 6-2.
After this victory, his older brother Philly, who also tried to be a professional tennis player, warned Agassi that if his father ever gave him a pill before games, he would not take it.
After a while, this happened and Agassi's father gave him a pill but Agassi did what his brother told him and purposely lost it. This meant that your father never gave you pills again.
Agassi became his father's only and last hope of having a professional tennis son and so he decided to send Agassi to a tennis school in Florida that cost $ 12k a year.
Initially Agassi's father was only going to enroll him for 3 months due to having no financial possibilities for more but the school principal after seeing Agassi play called Mike and said that Agassi could stay the whole year for free.
At school Agassi became a rebel with bad grades, drinking, smoking and becoming a punk.
At the age of 11, agassi dropped out of school and devoted himself exclusively to tennis.
At the age of 15, Agassi started receiving wildcards to enter tournaments where he was winning faster tennis players and started to climb the ranking.
As an amateur he did not receive any cash prizes but had all of his expenses paid.
In 1986, at just 16 years old, Agassi became a professional and his brother Philly became his full-time travel companion helping Agassi with everything he needed.
In his first tournament as a professional Agassi reached the final.
His first Grand Slam was the US Open in which he was eliminated in the first round.
In 1988, it is the year in which its popularity increases and the audience in the stands started to wear the same look, sporting denim shorts and mullet haricut.
This year Agassi managed to climb to 4th place in the ranking but he had a lot of difficulties in the games that became logos due to his size and not having so much physical strength.
This led Agassi in the second half of 1989 to start training with Gil Reyes, Las Vegas strength coach, to improve his physical condition.
At this point Agassi defined as his objective to win a Grand Slam.
In 1990, Agassi reaches his 1st Grand Slam final at the French Open but ends up losing.
In August he returned to the Grand Slam finals this time at the US Open but lost again.
In 1991, Agassi managed to reach the French Open final again but lost again for the third time in a Grand Slam final.
Only in 1992 would Agassi return to a Grand Slam final this time at Wimbledon, aged 22, and this time he won his first Grand Slam title.
After the game he called his father who was thrilled and honored by his son's achievement.
During the following months Agassi did not play tennis much due to a wrist injury that forced him to have an operation.
At this point he also started to have a new coach Brad Gilbert.
While Agassi was learning the new training methods he ended up on a losing streak.
In 1994, Agassi won the US Open Grand Slam.
Before the next Grand Slam Agassi changed his look by shaving all his hair.
In 1995, Agassi won the Australia Open and this was the 1st Grand Slam of the season.
A few weeks later and after some more good performances Agassi becomes number 1 in the ranking at 25 years old.
Agassi then defines a new challenge that consisted of winning the 4 Grand Slams. At this point he had already won 3 (Wimbledon, US Open and Autalia Open) with only the French Open missing to make him the first American to win the 4 titles.
In 1996, Agassi wins the Olympic Games held in Atlanta (USA).
In 1997, things on the pitch were not going well. Agassi was losing games and many of them in the first round of tournaments. Because of this he started to take drugs.
At this point he went down in the ranking to 141st place.
Agassi failed the drug test and was in danger of being suspended. So he decides to write a letter to the ATP to lie that he said he drank a drink and did not know that it contained drugs. ATP ended up accepting his justification.
Agassi ends up meeting Nelson Mandela and ends up gaining inspiration to take a turn in his life.
He returned to training tennis regularly and started entering lower ranking tournaments.
In 1999, Agassi returned to compete in a Grand Slam that was at the French Open.
He managed to reach the final and although he was losing 2-0 in sets but he turned the game around and ended up winning the same and thus winning the Grand Slam he lacked.
After that, Agassi continued to improve his tennis, winning the US Open and returning to the 1st place in the ranking.
In 2000, Agassi started the season in the best way by winning the Australia Open right at the 1st Grand Slam of the season.
However, he didn’t win any more titles this season.
In 2001, Agassi won the Australia Open again.
In 2002 Agassi did not win any title.
In 2003, Agassi begins the season to win the Australia Open with his 8th and final Grand Slams title.
In 2006, Agassi retired after the US Open due to serious back problems after 21 years of career.
In total he won 13 titles in his career with 8 Grand Slams titles.
It was a sport he openly admitted to hating many times, but is nontheless considered one of the greatest players of it.
I regularly follow the posts made by you in past. Its a great initiative to write about sports personalities. I loved your post on Pete Sampras the most
Thanks a lot for following my sports posts.
I'm glad that you like it.