Tennis is a sport older than a century and is played in lots of countries around the world. It has seen thousands of winners, loser and hundreds of champions !
But rarely has it seen a long haired punk rebelling against the world of traditions and spending his talents on his looks, morphed himself into a middle aged statesman & philanthropist, focused completely on the job at hand and becoming an icon for millions of sports professionals around the world.
Andre Agassi underwent this morphing in just about twenty years time. His arrival on the tennis scene twenty years back, was much publicized, as was everything else bout him. He was a young man with great consideration for his image, his looks, his earrings etc. I vaguely remember he was advertising some product which had the catch line "Image is everything" and I am sure this was very much his catch line too!
Despite all this, none could deny that the talent the young Las-Vegan had even then, though it was still unproven.Today he has proved himself beyond any doubts, with 8 grand slams titles, numerous masters titles, many hundred weeks on world no.1 etc. But maybe his the most important achievement is winning all four slams, albeit in different years, but being the only one man to win all four slams on four different surfaces, which is an incredible achievement by whichever way you look at it!!!!
Early in his career he was very much of a rebel; rebel against any and all traditions in tennis and life in general. Tennis being a sport originated from England, the traditions were and are still present in some form or the other.
No where else the traditions are quite so strong as Wimbledon which goes at a very minute level of dictating that the clothing is to be only white.Young Andre found it completely un-acceptable, cause his image was a colorful young man wearing t-shirts and long shorts of any conceivable & "manufacturable" color.
Due to this,incredibly,he skipped the most prestigious tennis championship for 3 years, only to return to Wimbledon in 1991 in a (shocking!) fully white outfit. However, his famous Wimbledon win in 1992 changed everything for him, his game more or less his personality and his perception of Wimbledon.
It was the first time he has proved something to the tennis world and showed that the publicity received all this while, was not just a hype. He beat big serving croat Goran (Ivanisevic ) in that epic 5 setter when Goran himself looked like a champion that year. Andre earned himself the accolade of being "one of the best returners of service" in the game, if not the best. Goran's serves are generally invisible to human beings cause these are in infrared red wavelengths, and can only be seen on TV screen in the form of slow motion replays,but Andre did well not only to see the serve and reach to it but flashing back a trademark Agassi return almost all the time.
Till date, he continues to be "the" returner of any and all serves. In that sense, it is also said that he changed Wimbledon to suit his style. Prior to his win, Wimbledon was always considered the "Mecca" of serve and volleyers and the grave yard of baseliners. Ivan Lendl, one of the best baseliners in tennis, failed to clinch the all England crown despite reaching three finals, while net experts like Becker and Edgers were winning titles alternate year.
But Agassi changed it all in 1992. He stood firm on the baseline and with his lethal returns (generally touching the toes of the incoming server) and pin point passes (the smaller the margin, the better the pass) become the next king of Wimbledon. Today, we see lot more baseliners in contention for the title. All this started with that famous win in 1992.
During his career, he also found a very respectable but deadly arch rival in the form of Pete Sampras (aka Pistol Pete). Their rivalry provided Tennis with 34 most magnificent matches right until Pete Sampras's final professional tennis match, the US Open final in 2002.
In his early years I was never a big fan of Agassi. I always thought he is making much too noise for what he is doing. But his transformation in after his marriage with Brooke Shields and his down word plunge in rankings in 1997,changed my mind. Its astonishing to see what he did to himself and his game.
Its almost like there were two different people playing before 1997 and after 1998. His game, his focus, his fitness, his attitude everything has changed, almost like at the press of a button. The marriage affected his game so much that at one point he was ranked as low as 141. That time , it looked like curtains for the Las-Vegan. But he showed remarkable depth of character, which very few believe he had, and clawed his way back to the top. During the course of this recovery, he also played in challenger tournaments which are local tourneys for players ranked outside top 20. All his hard work paid off and he made the biggest jump in ATP rankings in one year : from 141 to 6 !!!!!
I think this effort not just changed him game, but it changed him as a person. Cause the Andre Agassi who was back to major touneys after this event, was a completely different person than the rebel. He trained a lot harder and gained terrific fitness and focus, on the court. This is the best example for any professional willing to achieve something in his life. His sheer determination paved way for everything else and he truly became a superstar; more than just a brand ambassador for shoes and T-shirts, a truly great champion.
Last week, the rebel came back to Wimbledon for one final hurrah. After 14 years since his only title on the fast grass, the rebel was back, hungry for more and more importantly because he wanted to come to Wimbledon one last time. According to him, this is where it all began for him !!!! And it happened when no one expected him to win this event in 1992.
His march this year, was stopped at the third round by the new Spanish sensation, Rafael Nadal. The change of guard was obvious while watching this match, cause Andre Agassi, who for so long had dominated all baseline games, was for once, struggling to adjust to the ground strokes coming from the other side of the net.
While watching the match, one line keep coming to my mind
"The King is dead, long live the new King".
The rebel who changed himself for better all this while changed Wimbledon too !!!Wimbledon saw an "on-court" interview (which made all the traditionalist aghast!) for the first time after Andre's final match. Having an on-court interview is synonymous to wearing a black T-shirt and short. The long standing tradition was broken for this special man who was very much emotional and chocked for words in his final moments at SW19.
Andre Agassi will leave the international tennis at the end of the US Open this August and will retire happily to his wife (Steffi Graf) and two kids. But his legacy will continue. For he is one of those rare genre of players, who made a lasting impression on the game, which is much more beyond the numbers mentioned above. He is more a spirit than a man!
His attitude, commitment and persona are unique attributes individually, but their combination as it is present in him, may never be seen again.
Agassi changed himself for tennis, but then he changed the game too. Tennis will miss the character of this man as much as his core game. His attitude, his humility (especially in the later parts of his career), those thundering forehand, back hand return winners, that lovely shake of the head when a backhand goes wide and the soft, humane smile while shaking hands with the opponent at the end of a match.
Andre Agassi will not be what he was twenty years back and tennis, without him, will not be same ever again ..... !!!
