American former world No. 1 tennis player
Andre Kirk Agassi (born April 29, 1970) is an American former world No. 1 tennis player. He is an eight-time major champion and a 1996 Olympic gold medalist, as well as a runner-up in seven other Grand Slam tournaments.
Agassi was the first man to win four Australian Open singles titles in the Open Era (though later surpassed by Novak Djokovic, who won his fifth title in 2015). Agassi is the second of five men to achieve the career Grand Slam in the Open Era and the fifth of eight overall to make the achievement. He is also the first of two men to achieve the career Golden Slam (career Grand Slam and Olympic gold medal), and the only man to win a career Super Slam (career Grand Slam, plus the Olympic gold medal and the year-end championships).
Agassi was the first man to win all four singles majors on three different surfaces (hard, clay and grass), and remains the most recent American man to win the French Open (in 1999) and the Australian Open (in 2003). He also won 17 ATP Masters Series titles and was part of the winning Davis Cup teams in 1990, 1992 and 1995. Agassi reached the world No. 1 ranking for the first time in 1995 but was troubled by personal issues during the mid-to-late 1990s and sank to No. 141 in 1997, prompting many to believe that his career was over. Agassi returned to No. 1 in 1999 and enjoyed the most successful run of his career over the next four years. During his 20-plus year tour career, Agassi was known by the nickname "The Punisher".
After suffering from sciatica caused by two bulging discs in his back, a spondylolisthesis (vertebral displacement) and a bone spur that interfered with the nerve, Agassi retired from professional tennis on September 3, 2006, after losing in the third round of the US Open. He is the founder of the Andre Agassi Charitable Foundation, which has raised over $60 million for at-risk children in Southern Nevada. In 2001, the Foundation opened the Andre Agassi College Preparatory Academy in Las Vegas, a K-12 public charter school for at-risk children. He has been married to fellow tennis player Steffi Graf since 2001.
Tennis is one of the only sports in America where the sport doesn't grow with the size of the person - it just forces you to swallow the whole pill.
I don't always choose to stay fit by playing tennis, because that comes with its own wear-and-tear.
First of all, in any sport where you can measure distance, height speed and all of that, you see how athletes have changed their sport and made it better. I believe, with every generation, the sport has improved. Certainly, in the men's game, that has been the case. I think that I played Pete [Sampras] at his best, I played Roger [Federer] at his best.. I believe wholeheartedly that Roger and [Rafael] Nadal have pushed the game much further than myself or Pete ever did. Their options on the tennis court are considerably more than ours.
Now that I've won a slam, I know something very few people on earth are permitted to know. A win doesn't feel as good as a loss feels bad, and the good feeling doesn't last long as the bad. Not even close.
First of all, let me say, 1:15 in the morning, for 20,000 people to still be here, I wasn't the winner, tennis was. That's awesome. I don't know if I've ever felt so good here before.
When you deal with somebody in the heat of battle, you see the best or the worst of them. So when you get through all that there is a great deal of respect.
My feelings are Yevgeny Kafelnikov should take his prize money when he is done here and go and buy some perspective.
You know my dad pushed me to believe that I was going to be the best. I just never thought of life without tennis, even looking forward.
He thinks it's his day, and when you think it's your day, it usually is.
Sex doesn't interfere with your tennis; it's staying out all night trying to find it that affects your tennis.
Few of us are granted the grace to know ourselves, and until we do, maybe the best we can do is be consistent.
I've been criticized for not having perspective in the past and I thought that of myself many times but not there.
I'm going to go down swinging... I'm sure as heck not going to go home and say I had a bad tournament.
My accomplishments do not live up to my tennis game. Most people have to work really hard and win some big matches, and then they get money and popularity. For me it has been the reverse of everybody else. The exact opposite.
Well, you know, I've bonded with a lot of people over the years, you know. We played the same tournaments year after year and we go back to the same place and many times the seats have been full and that has meant the world to me for sure.
There's no such thing as an open draw. At least for me - I mean, obviously for Roger Federer, I think every draw feels open for him - but for me there's no such thing as an open draw
It means a lot to you, to be out there. The highs are pretty high, and the lows are pretty low. You know, it's easy to feel like you let the team down. I mean, at the end of the day we still got to figure out a way to get through the tie.
I'm going to wake up tomorrow and start with not caring how I feel. That's going to feel great.
Well, I actually tell my son that I don't have any hair because he asked me the same question that I gave it to him when he was born, so he actually still believes that. He's five years old.
It's always been eclectic; you never know what you're going to get.