Two days ago marked the 25th anniversary of one of my favorite ports memories that I actually watched in the 20th century. It was one that day a quarter of a century ago (hard to believe that it could actually have been that long ago) that my favorite tennis player of all time finally managed his crowning achievement by winning the one Grand Slam championship that had eluded him. On June 6, 1999, Andre Agassi kind of shocked the tennis world and won the French Open.
To fully appreciate just how much of a feat that was, we should remember just where Agassi had been not long before. He had grown up being regarded as the tennis prodigy, and even as America's greatest hope for achieving tennis glory. To be sure, Agassi had enjoyed some success and achieved some major milestones. Yet, he watched as Michael Chang became the first American of the new tennis generation - Agassi's generation - to break through with a Grand Slam title, when Chang won the French Open in 1989. Then a couple of years later, he watched as Jim Courier became the first American of that new generation to at least briefly dominate the sport, reaching the world number one ranking (he ended 1992 as the world's number one ranked man) and winning capturing four Grand Slam titles in the process. Then, Pete Sampras broke into the scene and pretty much dominated the tennis scene for the next six years, finishing each year from 1993 through 1998 as the world's number one ranked man. That is a record which still stands for Sampras today, even if most of his other records have since been broken.
During this time, Agassi had himself achieved some wonderful things. In 1988, he became the youngest man ever to reach the number two ranking, when just 18 years old. He reached not one but two Grand Slam finals in 1990, at the French Open as well as the US Open, although he was the runner-up in both matches. He went back to the French Open final in 1991, but lost again (to Courier, who was then just beginning to reach the height of his powers). By the beginning of 1992, some people (apparently including Agassi himself) were wondering if he would ever win a Grand Slam title, or fulfill the tremendous promise that many felt he possessed.
Well, Agassi did break through, and his first Grand Slam title would come somewhat unexpectedly in 1992. Agassi had skipped Wimbledon in 1990, claiming that the dress restrictions were too strict. He wanted to let his colors fly. Some alleged that he was just nervous about the surface, and that he was making excuses because he knew that he would not succeed on the grass courts. But when he returned to Wimbledon in 1991, he reached the quarterfinals. Then in 1992, he went past that, then beat John McEnroe in the semifinals, and outlasted Goran Ivanišević in the Wimbledon Final. Finally, Agassi had won a Grand Slam title, even though it was not the one most expected him to have his breakthrough in, nor in quite the manner.
Maybe this might have salvaged Agassi's seemingly wavering reputation to that point, but only temporarily. Some had begun to criticize Agassi as truly embodying his "Image is Everything" ad campaign. He was the "Las Vegas showman," as Dick Enberg kept referring to him as, but largely lacking substance. Agassi may have enjoyed capturing that Wimbledon title, but he did not follow it up. Not at the US Open that year, and not the next year, when he returned to the grass courts at Wimbledon as the defending champion. In fact, he would not qualify for another Grand Slam Final for over two years. By the time that Agassi got knocked out of the 1993 US Open with a first round exit, many were rolling their eyes in exasperation, and felt that this was the same old Agassi. Bound to disappoint.
In 1994, Agassi entered the US Open as an unseeded player. But he kept winning, and reached the Final, where he defeated Michael Stich in straight sets to capture his second career Grand Slam title, and his first US Open title. This marked the first major turnaround in Agassi's career. He followed that up enjoying a tremendous run. He shaved his head for a new image by the time of the 1995 Australian Open, and it seemed to work well for him. He reached the final, and outdueled his rival Pete Sampras in the Australian Open Final to win his third career Grand Slam title. Shortly after that, he reached the number one ranking for the first time in his career, and hung onto it for most of the rest of 1995. Agassi was on top of his game, playing his best tennis, and seemed to be enjoying himself. He still clearly enjoyed a glamorous image, dating Brook Shields and doing plenty of advertisements, and clearly liked the attention that he got. But there were two major disappointments in his career later in 1995. After dominating Boris Becker in the WImbledon semifinal, he suddenly lost confidence (it was actually visible) and suffered a tough collapse after the hot start, ultimately losing that match and preventing another major showdown against Sampras in the Wimbledon Final. But he got past Becker at the US Open and got that major showdown against Sampras in the US Open Final. Agassi played fairly well, but Sampras was on top of his game, and beat the defending champion Agassi. Sampras claimed the year end number one, while Agassi found that his career fell into a downward spiral. By 1997, Agassi had fallen to the number 141 ranking, and was even playing qualifying rounds at Grand Slams just to earn a little confidence going in.
It was not all bad during that period. He reached the semifinals at the US Open in 1996. Also that year, he had the one shining moment of his career during that long span between the 1995 US Open loss to his biggest rival Pete Sampras, and the 1999 French Open. That year, Agassi won the Olympic Gold Medal in Atlanta, which I heard him once describing as his greatest single career achievement. It helped to make his career stand out, although it did not add to his Grand Slam titles count. But by 1997, it seemed that Agassi already may be a has been. To that point, many defined Agassi's career as disappointing, filled with promise, but with relatively little to show for it, even though on some level, he personified tennis for many. As a fan, it felt like there was so much that was left unfulfilled. I did not want to believe that his career was already largely in the past, but it seemed that he was not reaching finals anymore, while many younger players were on the rise.
Agassi fought to try and stage a comeback. He worked hard, even famously running up a hill in Las Vegas while Christmas traffic was passing him by. In 1998, he was slowly making his way back, but still far from the top.
Then came the 1999 French Open. Agassi played extremely well and enjoyed some early highlights. It became a harbinger of things to come, as Agassi got past major obstacles. The biggest was a match against Carlos Moya, the defending French Open champion. He survived that one, and found himself once again in the French Open Final for the third time in his career. Many had believed that Agassi's chances on the tough terre batu of Roland Garros had long since passed. And indeed, when Agassi quickly fell behind two sets to love to Andrei Medvedev, it seemed like this might be the same old disappointing Agassi.
But Agassi had a newfound mental and physical toughness. He battled back, winning the third set, then following up with the fourth set. He then survived the fifth set to earn a grueling win, finally capturing the French Open title, and becoming the first man in three decades to achieve the career Grand Slam. Agassi had now won all four Grand Slam tournament, and became the first man to win them on three different surfaces. Also, by virtue of having won the Olympic Gold Medal, he became the first man to have achieved the career Golden Slam (winning all four Grand Slams as well as Olympic gold) and still is one of only two men (Nadal being the other) to have achieved that feat. Despite some early career setbacks, he now had very real distinctions that others who had seemed to surpass him had not done. That included Pete Sampras, who had won far too many Grand Slam titles by that point for Agassi to hope to catch up to. Yet Agassi had very real milestones which Sampras did not have. Sampras never won an Olympic Gold Medal, and he never won the French Open title.
This was the major turnaround that helped redefine Agassi's career. Beginning with the French Open title run in 1999, Agassi found new life in tennis. He would reach the Wimbledon Final (losing to Sampras), but still rose to the number one ranking for only the second time in his career. Then he added a second US Open title in 1999 and won the year-end number one ranking. For years, he remained one of the true elites of the sport, and won the Australian Open in 2000, 2001, and again in 2003. At one point in 2003, he became the world's oldest number one ranked man to that point (since then overtaken by each of the Big Three).
What a career!
Yet that 1999 French Open Championship stands out as a real career milestone, with Agassi truly making history. And it happened 25 years ago.
Roland Garros 1999 : Andre Agassi
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