Andre Agassi: The hair-raiser
In the end, a dodgy back put paid to his career, but Andre Agassi left an indelible mark on the game of tennis. His penchant for colourful t-shirts; wearing bling earrings and rocker hairstyles on court marked him out from the rest of the pack in the early days of his career. He seemed set for the stars before his form began to suffer from Hollywood living and excess weight: in 1997 he failed to win anything and was ranked 141 in the world. He re-emerged the following year to win five titles and finish the year no.6. Thanks to his sheer power play and ability to return serve inside the baseline, he was widely thought to be one of the best strikers of a ball in tennis history - he is certainly one of the most memorable.
THE LYCOS ROUGH GUIDE TO ANDRE AGASSI:
• Record holder: Agassi is one of only five players in the history of tennis to win all five slams and the only player in the open era to win every Grand Slam singles title.
• Down for the cause: When it comes to charity work, Agassi is the most charitable man in professional tennis. He founded the Andre Agassi Charitable Association and has a Boys & Girls Club which assists kids with their athletic potential. In 2001 he opened up the Andre Agassi College Preparatory Academy in Las Vegas– an tuition-free charter school for at-risk kids in the area.
• Video star: He’s had three video games in his name - Andre Agassi Tennis; Agassi Tennis Generation and Smash Court Pro tournament.
• Olympic daddy: His dad, Mike is an Iranian of Assyrian and Armenian ethnicity who represented Iran at the 1948 and 1952 Olympic games, while his mother is American of French descent.
• Second fiddle: As one cheeky commentator pointed out, Agassi doesn’t even hold the most Grand Slams in his own household. That’s because he’s married to the great German tennis player Steffi Graff, who won 22 Grand Slam singles titles. They have two children together
• Ladies man: Before he married Steffi in 2001, he was hitched to Brooke Shields - they tied the not in 1997 and got divorced two years later. Agassi also dated Barbra Streisand in the early 90s.
