Andre was born on April 29, 1970, to Mike and Betty Agassi. His father, a former boxing champ and Olympian from Iran, settled in Las Vegas taking work as a tennis instructor.
By the age of 10, Andre was beating fellow up-and-coming US players including Pete Sampras, Jim Courier and Michael Chang. Aged 13, he'd simply learned all he could from his dad.
Having enrolled in the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy in Florida at the age of 13, Andre excelled and turned pro when he was only 16. Six championship wins in 1988 saw him quickly rise to number 4 in the rankings. However, despite attracting a fair amount of press attention for his fashion sense and bad boy image, Andre had to wait until 1992 for his first big win.
A return to form saw Andre win two straight Australian Open championships in 2000 and 2001. During 2001, he 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.
Agassi has been called the best service returner in the history of the game.
Agassi married tennis player Steffi Graf in 2001 and the couple have two children. While continuing to play, off the court he devotes much time to the Andre Agassi Charitable Foundation.
Winning his eighth Grand Slam title at the Australian Open and his sixth Miami Masters in 2003, he surpassed his wife Steffi Graf who is five-time winner of the event. In 2004, Agassi won the Cincinnati Masters and in 2005, he left Nike after a 17-year alliance, and signed an endorsement deal with Adidas.
After twenty years in professional tennis, on 24 June 2004 Agassi announced he would be retiring from tennis following the 2006 US Open. His final match was against Benjamin Becker on 3 September 2006 and Agassi lost in four sets, in the third round. He bade the crowd an emotional goodbye with the following words: “The scoreboard says I lost today, but what the scoreboard doesn’t say is what it is I have found. Over the last twenty-one years, I have found loyalty: you have pulled for me on the court and also in life. I have found inspiration: you have willed me to succeed, sometimes even in my lowest moments. And I’ve found generosity: you have given me your shoulders to stand on to reach for my dreams, dreams I could never have reached without you. Over the last twenty-one years, I have found you and I will take you and the memory of you with me for the rest of my life. Thank you.”
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