Kings Kisinen: Andre Agassi American Professional Tennis Player

Friday, January 20, 2012

Andre Agassi American Professional Tennis Player

Andre Kirk Agassi (born April 29, 1970) is a retired American professional tennis player and former world no. 1. Generally considered by critics and fellow players to be one of the greatest tennis players of all time, Agassi has been called the best service returner in the history of the game.

Described by the BBC upon his retirement as "perhaps the biggest worldwide star in the sport's history", Agassi's performances, along with his unorthodox apparel and attitude, have seen him cited as one of the most charismatic players in the history of the game, and credited for helping revive the popularity of tennis during the 1990s.

Agassi is an eight-time Grand Slam singles champion who competed in 15 Grand Slam finals, and an Olympic gold medalist. A multi-surface specialist, he is the first of two male players in history to have achieved a singles Career Golden Slam, and one of four male players to have achieved a singles Career Grand Slam in the Open Era (one of seven in history).

He was the first male player to win all four Grand Slams on three different surfaces (hard, clay and grass), and is the last American male to win the French Open (1999) and the Australian Open (2003). Agassi also won 17 ATP Masters Series titles, won the 1990 ATP Tour World Championships and was part of a winning Davis Cup team in 1990 and 1992.

He is the only male singles player in history to have won all four Grand Slam tournaments, the Olympic gold medal and the ATP Tour World Championships: a distinction dubbed as a "Career Super Slam" by Sports Illustrated. 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.

At the 1999 French Open Agassi and Steffi Graf were the surprise champions, since he had not won a Grand Slam title since 1995 and she had not won one since 1996. At the winners' ball they met each other for the second time, and shortly after started dating. Graf retired after they both reached the Wimbledon final in July. They were married on October 22, 2001, and four days later their son, Jaden Gil, was born. Long-time trainer Gil Reyes has been called one of Agassi's closest friends; some have described him as being a "father figure" to Agassi.

In December 2008 Agassi's childhood friend and former business manager, Perry Rogers, sued Graf for $50,000 in management fees he claimed that she owed him. In 2007 Agassi, Muhammad Ali, Lance Armstrong, Warrick Dunn, Jeff Gordon, Mia Hamm, Tony Hawk, Andrea Jaeger, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Mario Lemieux, Alonzo Mourning and Cal Ripken, Jr. founded the charity Athletes for Hope,[72] which helps professional athletes get involved in charitable causes and aims to inspire all people to volunteer and support their communities.