By LAUGHING MATTERS BY JACK NEWORTH
The U.S. Open tennis tournament officially ends this Sunday. But for me it ended when Andre Agassi played his last match. Afterwards, choked with emotion, he bid a magnificent farewell to the 24,000 fans.
“You have given me your shoulders to stand on to reach for dreams I could never have reached without you,” he told the crowd. It was one of those rare moments that transcends sport. In fact, the next day Agassi’s photo was above the fold on the front page of the L.A. Times.
In 1987 I took up tennis but still thought the game was too genteel. That is until I saw 17-year-old Agassi play in a tournament at UCLA. With fanfare afforded a rock star, he wore jean shorts,a multi-colored shirt and had surfer bleached-blond hair in a pony tail. His game was white lines and glory on every shot with reckless abandon. He had a TV commercial running at the time,a montage of his blasting away on the court that ended with his saying, “That should wake up the country club.” That night he definitely woke me up.
But even as Agassi’s tennis ranking skyrocketed, purists thought him brash and disrespectful of tradition. Perhaps he was, but keep in mind, with tens of millions of dollars in endorsements, he was still a teenager. And few knew beneath the “image is everything” mantra of his flashy commercials, was such a painful childhood.
From birth Agassi was trained to be the best tennis player in the world by his father, Mike. An immigrant from Iran, the father sensed his youngest child was a prodigy and drilled him on the courts 365 days a year, including Christmas. Then at 14, Agassi was shipped off to the Bolletteri Tennis Academy in Florida. He felt abandoned and alone. He hoped if he won enough he could come back home. Instead, his only way out was a pro career, at an age when most kids are just getting their driver’s licenses.
Agassi’s tennis achievements are legendary. He is one of only five men to have won each grand slam. Greats like Borg, Connors, McEnroe and Sampras couldn’t do it. In 21 years on the tour, 16 times he finished in the top 10. But his lows were equally dramatic. With the end of his marriage to Brooke Shields, injuries and burn out, his ranking fell to 141 in the world. His critics said it proved he was always more image than heart.
But then Agassi did something never done by a player of his caliber. At 27, he went on the challenger circuit, the minor leagues of tennis. Instead of crowds of 20,000 it would be 200, in matches at public courts, with no ballboys or linesmen, no rock-and-roll glamour, just grit. But this time tennis wasn’t for his father, or his critics. It was for himself. Slowly he fought his way back onto the tour and within a few years he was No. 1 in the world. But even more impressive was the way he had grown up.
Today Agassi’s humanitarian achievements also are legendary. His charitable foundation has raised more than $70 million for disadvantaged, at-risk youth in Las Vegas, and include a K-12 charter school. Agassi is giving children a chance at a childhood that he didn’t have. Take a second and check out his foundation at http://www.Agassifoundation.org.
Agassi’s smartest move was when he married my dream girl, Steffi Graff in 2001 — I am just now getting over it. They have a son, Jaden, 5, and a daughter, Jaz, 3. Agassi has healed his wounds through the raising of his own children. Writer Gary Smith recounts in the July 17 Sports Illustrated, the time Mike chided his son for not bringing Jaden over for all-day tennis lessons with grandpa. Agassi replied tactfully, “Yeah, I might do that, Dad.” But it was obvious to both it would never happen.
Agassi’s focus now is helping others. “When you start out you think it’s all about taking in experiences to fulfill yourself. But the greatest experience is changing someone else’s experience. When you see the world through the lens of others, that’s when you find yourself,” he said.
Tennis is an individual sport. One’s success comes by beating others. And yet in the locker room after his final match, Agassi was applauded by the other players. And at the end of his press conference, reporters, who never do such things, gave him a standing ovation that lasted eight minutes.
In Arthur Ashe Stadium when Agassi bid farewell to his fans he wasn’t the only one with tears in his eyes. There were 24,000 in the crowd, and millions around the world, including me. I miss him already. (Jack Neworth is a freelance writer who)
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 8, 2006. Read the original PDF.