was born in Las Vegas, Nevada, on April 29, 1970. His father was a member of the Iranian boxing team at the 1948 and 1952 Olympic Games before immigrating to the United States. He honed Andre's eye-hand coordination by hanging tennis balls above his crib. He gave Andre paddles and balloons when he was still in a high chair, and by the time Andre began playing tennis his ball collection filled 60 garbage cans with 300 balls per can. When he was five years old Andre was already practicing with such pros as Jimmy Connors and Roscoe Tanner. At the age of 14, Andre was sent to Nick Bollettieri's Tennis Academy in Florida. He turned professional at the age of 16, and won his first top-level singles title in 1987, at Itaparica. He won six more tournaments in 1988, and, by December of that year, he had accumulated more than $2 million in prize money -- the fastest rise through the professional ranks in tennis history.

Highlights (and Lowlights) of His Professional Career

1990
Lost in the final round of the French Open, to Andrés Gómez.
Lost in the final round of the U.S. Open, to Pete Sampras.

1991
Lost in the final round of the French Open, to Jim Courier.
Made it to the quarterfinals at Wimbledon.

1992
Won Wimbledon by defeating Goran Ivanisevic in five sets.

1993
Sidelined by wrist surgery.

1994
Came back to become the first man to win the U.S. Open as an unseeded player, beating Michael Stich in the final round.

1995
Won a career-high seven singles titles, and was ranked Number 1 in the world by April.
Won the Australian Open by defeating Pete Sampras.
Also won the Cincinnati Masters, the Miami Master, and the Canada Masters.
Held the Number 1 ranking for a total of 30 weeks, during which period he won 26 matches in a row.
The streak was ended by a loss to Sampras in the U.S. Open finals.
Win-loss record for the year was 72-10.

1996
Won the gold medal at the Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta by defeating Sergi Bruguera of Spain.

1997
His wrist injury resurfaced, and he was only able to play 24 matches that year.
He won no top-level titles and he fell to 141st in the rankings.
Married actress Brooke Shields on April 19, 1997.

1998
Played in Challenger Series tournaments (a circuit for professional players ranked outside the world's top 50). By the end of the year he had won five titles and jumped up to Number 6 in the rankings -- the highest jump into the Top 10 ever made.

1999
Won the French Open by defeating Andrei Medvedev.
Lost the Wimbledon final to Pete Sampras.
Won the U.S. Open final by defeating Todd Martin.
By year's end Agassi was once again ranked Number 1 in the world.
Obtained a divorce from Brooke Shields on April 9, 1999.

2000
Captured his second Australian Open title by defeating Yevgeny Kafelnikov. Became the first male player to have reached four consecutive Grand Slam finals since Rod Laver did so in 1969. He also became only the third player since Laver to be the reigning champion of three of four Grand Slam events, missing only the Wimbledon title.
Lost the semifinals at Wimbledon that year to Patrick Rafter.
Defeated in the final of the Tennis Masters Cup in Lisbon by Gustavo Kuerten in three straight sets.
Agassi fell to 6th in the world.

2001
Won the Australian Open title with a straight sets final win over Arnaud Clement.
Lost to Pat Rafter in the semifinals at Wimbledon.
Lost to Pete Sampras in the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open.
Married retired tennis star Stefi Graf on October 22, 2001. Their son, Jaden Gil, was born on October 26, 2001, and their daughter, Jaz Elle, was born on October 3, 2003.

2002
Lost to Pete Sampras in the finals of the U.S. Open.
Won at the Miami Masters, the Rome Masters, and the Madrid Masters.
Finished the year at Number 2, making him the oldest man to achieve that ranking (32 years and 8 months).

2003
Won the eighth Grand Slam title of his career at the Australian Open, by defeating Rainier Schattler in straight sets.
Won his 6th Miami Masters title, breaking Steffi Graf's record of five Miami wins. With that victory Agassi also became both the youngest (19 years old) and oldest (32 years old) winner of the tournament.
Recaptured his Number 1 status by defeating Savier Malisse in the quarterfinal match of the Stella Artois Tennis Championships at Queens. At 33 years and 13 days, he also became the oldest Number 1 ranked male tennis player in history.
Held the Number 1 ranking for fourteen weeks before losing to Roger Federer in the final match of the Tennis Masters Cup.
Finished the year ranked Number 4.

2004
The 34-year-old Agassi became the second-oldest man to win the Cincinnati Masters (Ken Rosewall was 35 years old when he won the title in 1970). The win brought Agassi's career total to 59 top-level singles titles and a record 17 ATP Masters Series titles.

2005
Lost to Roger Federer in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open, the semifinals at Dubai, and the semifinals at Miami.
Forced to withdraw from competition at Indian Wells due to a swollen big toe.
Lost to Guillermo Coria in the semifinals at Rome.
Endured severe back pain en route to a first-round loss to Jarkko Nieminen at the French Open.
Won his fourth Mercedes Benz Cup at Los Angeles, becoming the fourth player to win the tournament four times. It was also the 60th win of his career, making him only the seventh player in the open era to win at least 60 singles titles.
Won in Los Angeles and made the final at Montreal before falling to Number 2-ranked Rafael Nadal.
Lost the U.S. Open to Roger Federer.
Forced to withdraw from the Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai due to an aggravated ankle injury.
Ended the year ranked Number 7 in the world.

2006
Forced to withdraw from the Australian Open due to continuing back problems.
Lost in the quarterfinals of Delray Beach.
Withdrew from the SAP Open.
Lost in the second round of the Dubai Open.
Lost in the third round of the Pacific Life Open at Indian Wells.
Withdrew from the NASDAQ-100 Open in Miami just two hours before his first match was scheduled to begin.
Seeded 25th at Wimbledon; defeated in the third round by Number 2-ranked Rafael Nadal in straight sets.
Seeded 5th at the Countrywide Classic in Los Angeles; lost in the quarterfinals to third-seeded Fernando Gonzalez.
Unseeded at the U.S. Open for the first time since 1997; managed to survive serious back pain to make it to the third round, but was defeated by 112th-ranked Benjamin Becker.

September 3, 2006
During the press conference following his U.S. Open loss to Becker, Agassi formally announced his retirement from professional tennis.

His Accomplishments

By the time he ended his career Agassi had become one of only five players in the world to have won all four Grand Slam singles events during his career. He is the only player in the open era to have won every Grand Slam singles title, to have won the Tennis Masters Cup, to have been part of the Davis Cup winning team (1990, 1992, and 1995), and to have won an Olympic gold medal. And, he is the only male tennis player to have been ranked in the Top 10 in three different decades.

His Post-Tennis Career

Andre Agassi 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.

Questions or comments about this page?