Name	Andre Agassi
Height	5 ft 11 in
Naionality	American
Date of Birth	April 29, 1970
Place of Birth	Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
Famous for

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.

In 1998, Agassi won five titles and leapt from No. 141 on the rankings at the start of the year, to No. 6 at the end of it, making it the highest jump into the top 10 made by any player. He won five titles in ten finals and was runner-up at the Miami Masters.

Agassi entered the history books in 1999 when he came back from two sets to love down to beat Andrei Medvedev in a five-set French Open final, thereby becoming only the fifth male player (joining Rod Laver, Fred Perry, Roy Emerson, and Don Budge) to have won all four Grand Slam singles titles during his career. He is the only male player in history to have won all four Grand Slam titles on different surfaces, a tribute to his adaptability. Agassi also became the first male tennis player to win the Career Golden Slam.

He followed this by reaching the Wimbledon final, where he lost to Sampras. He then won the U.S. Open, beating Todd Martin in five sets (rallying from 2 sets to 1 down) in the final and finished 1999 ranked the World No. 1 again. This was the first and only time Agassi ended the year at number one, and it ended Sampras' record streak of six consecutive times ending the year ranked number one (1993-1998).

Agassi began 2000 by capturing his second Australian Open title, beating Sampras in a five-set seminifinal 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. (Roger Federer has since duplicated this feat, appearing in seven consecutive Grand Slam finals from 2005-2007.) Agassi was also only the third player since Laver to be the reigning champion of three of four Grand Slam events, missing only the Wimbledon title. (Sampras held the 1993 Wimbledon, 1993 U.S. Open, and 1994 Australian Open titles simultaneously, and Jimmy Connors won all three of those events in 1974, although at the time all three were on grass courts. Federer has since duplicated Sampras' and Connors' feat as well, holding all Grand Slam titles except the French Open at the end of 2004 as well as throughout 2006.)

2000 also saw Agassi reach the semifinals at Wimbledon, where he lost in five sets to Patrick Rafter in a match considered by many to be one of the best ever played at Wimbledon [1]. At the inaugural Tennis Masters Cup in Lisbon, Agassi reached the final after defeating Marat Safin 6-3, 6-3 in the semifinals to end the Russian's hopes to become the youngest World No. 1 in the history of tennis. Agassi eventually lost to Gustavo Kuerten 6-4, 6-4, 6-4. This loss allowed Kuerten to be crowned year-end World No. 1. Agassi finished 2000 ranked World No. 6, becoming the only male tennis player to have been ranked in the Top 10 in three different decades (1980’s - finishing No. 3 & 7 in 1988 and 1989; 1990’s - No. 4 in 1990, No. 10 in 1991, No. 9 in 1992, No. 2 in 1994 & 1995, No. 8 in 1996, No. 6 in 1998, and No. 1 in 1999; 2000’s - No. 6 in 2000, No. 3 in 2001, No. 2 in 2002, No. 4 in 2003, No. 8 in 2004, and No.7 in 2005).

Agassi opened 2001 by successfully defending his Australian Open title with a straight-sets final win over Arnaud Clément. Enroute, he beat a cramping Rafter (7-5, 2-6, 6-7, 6-2, 6-3) in front of a sell out crowd in what turned out to be the Aussie's last Australian Open. At Wimbledon, they met again in the semifinals, where Agassi lost another close match to Rafter, 8-6 in the fifth set. At the U.S. Open, Agassi lost in the quarterfinals to Sampras 6-7, 7-6, 7-6, 7-6, with no breaks of serve during the entire match.

2002 opened with disappointment for Agassi, as injury forced him to skip the Australian Open, where he was a two-time defending champion. The last duel between Agassi and Sampras came in the final of the U.S. Open. The battle saw Sampras emerge victorious in four sets and left Sampras with a 20-14 edge in their 34 career meetings. The match proved to be the last of Sampras' career. He did not play in an event on the professional tour again and officially announced his retirement in 2003. Agassi's U.S. Open finish, along with his victories at the Miami Masters, Rome Masters, and Madrid Masters, helped him finish 2002 as the oldest year-end No. 2 at 32 years and 8 months.

In 2003, Agassi won the eighth (and final) Grand Slam title of his career at the Australian Open, where he beat Rainer Schüttler in straight sets in the final. On March 31, 2003, he won his sixth Miami Masters, in the process surpassing wife Steffi Graf who was a 5-time winner of the event and completed a hat-trick from 2001-2003. The win was his 18th straight win in that tournament, which broke the previous record of 17 set by Sampras from 1993-1995. (Agassi's winning streak continued to 20 after winning his first 2 matches at the 2004 Miami Masters before eventually bowing to Agustin Calleri.) With the 2003 Miami Masters victory, Agassi became the youngest (19 years old) and oldest (32) winner of the tournament. In May of that year, he recaptured the World No. 1 ranking after a quarterfinal victory over Xavier Malisse at the Stella Artois Tennis Championships at Queens to become the oldest No. 1 ranked male player ever at 33 years and 13 days. He held the No. 1 ranking on that occasion for 14 weeks. Agassi's ranking slipped later on in the year, as injury problems forced him to withdraw from many events. He did manage to reach the U.S. Open semifinals, where he lost to Juan Carlos Ferrero. At the year-end Tennis Masters Cup, he lost in the final to Federer and finished the year ranked World No. 4.

In 2004, the 34-year-old Agassi won the Cincinnati Masters to bring his career total to 59 top-level singles titles and a record 17 ATP Masters Series titles, having already won seven of the nine ATP Masters tournament -- all except Monte Carlo and Hamburg. He became the second-oldest singles champion in Cincinnati tournament history (the tournament began in 1899), surpassed only by Ken Rosewall who won the title in 1970 at age 35.

Agassi's 2005 began with a quarterfinal loss to Federer at the Australian Open. Agassi had several other deep runs at tournaments, but had to withdraw from several events due to injury. He won his fourth Mercedes Benz Cup at Los Angeles and reached the finals of the Canada Masters before falling to world No. 2 Rafael Nadal.

Still, Agassi's 2005 was defined by an improbable run to the finals of the U.S. Open. After beating Razvan Sabau and Ivo Karlovic in straight sets, and defeating Tomas Berdych in four sets, Agassi won three consecutive five set matches to advance to the final. The most notable of these three matches was his quarterfinal victory over James Blake, where he rallied from two sets down to win in a fifth set tiebreak, 3-6, 3-6, 6-3, 6-3, 7-6(6). His other five-set victims were Xavier Malisse in the fourth round and Robby Ginepri in the semifinals. In the final, Agassi faced Federer, who was seeking his second consecutive U.S. Open title and his fifth Grand Slam title in two years. Federer defeated Agassi in four sets.

Before the 2005 Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai, Agassi rolled his ankle in a racquetball accident and tore several ligaments. He was unable to walk for weeks. He nevertheless committed to the tournament, in which he was seeded third, and played Nikolay Davydenko in his first round robin match. Agassi's movement was noticeably hindered, particularly on his backhand return of serve, and he lost in straight sets. He then withdrew from the tournament, to the criticism of the tournament director who had already dealt with several other withdrawals.

Agassi finished 2005 ranked No. 7, his 16th time in the year-end top 10 rankings, which tied Connors for the most times ranked in the top 10 at year's end. In 2005, Agassi left Nike after 17 years and signed an endorsement deal with Adidas [2].