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Andre Agassi: Pete Sampras
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John McEnroe's brief tenure as U.S. Davis Cup captain was marked by frequent laments about how tough it was to get Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi to play for his team. via SI.com
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By the age of ten, 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. Mike shipped his son off to legendary coach Nick Bollettieri's famed tennis boot camp in Bradenton, Florida. But Andre didn't take to the rigours of the tennis academy and began to rebel, growing his hair and even wearing jeans to tournaments. In 1986 he left the camp, but retained Nick as his coach, turning pro aged just 16. And he never looked back.
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In 1998, Agassi rededicated himself to tennis. He 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, admired by younger players. After winning matches, he bowed and blew two-handed kisses to spectators on each side of the court, a gesture seen as a rather humble acknowledgement of their support for him and for tennis. He played some classic matches in this period, most notably against his old rival Pete Sampras and popular Australian Patrick Rafter.
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In 1995 Agassi shaved his head marking the end of his "rebel" or "bad-boy" image. He met his building rival Pete Sampras in five finals all on hard-court. In that year, Agassi reached no.1 for 30 weeks and had a 72-10 record which has better winning percentage than Pete Sampras' best year of 77-12. In '97, his career reached an all-time low, due to the rise of his wrist injury again and not winning any majors, his ranking hit sank to 141 and his highly publicized marriage to Brooke Shields.
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Agassi began 2000 by capturing his second Australian Open title, beating Sampras in a five-set semifinal and Yevgeny Kafelnikov in a four-set final. He was the first male player to have reached four consecutive Grand Slam finals since Rod Laver achieved the Grand Slam in 1969.[8] At the time, Agassi was ... only the third player since Laver to be the reigning champion of three of four Grand Slam events, missing only the Wimbledon title.[9]
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Agassi lost that final to Andres Gomez and another Grand Slam final 2 months later against Pete Sampras in the US Open. Andre reached Roland Garros finals again next year and lost to Jim Courier.
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