Andre Agassi: End of an Era

There will be a sad day for the sport of tennis sometime in the next two weeks as Andre Agassi will hang up his racket for the last time. It is fitting that he will end at the United States Open in Flushing, which has arguably the most loving tennis fans in the world.

Im not the biggest tennis fan in the world, but even I can appreciate what Andre Agassi has done for the sport of tennis. He has transcended his sport unlike any other player, including Pete Sampras. He made Sampras a better tennis player, and Sampras even admitted that in a Hartford Courant article Monday. I tuned in when Agassi would match up against Sampras because their matches were what competitive sports are all about. Those two players displayed most hearts in those matches than most athletes do in their entire playing careers.

Agassis accomplishments are numerous and astounding: eight Grand Slam titles (he is only the fifth man to win all four Grand Slam titles in a career), 60 career singles titles, and $31,110,975 in career earnings. Former players speak of him glowingly, calling him an ambassador for the sport. There is no more fitting term for a man who went from having very little respect for the history of the game and the tradition of the game to being the spokesman for the game, according to former player and current television analyst Patrick McEnroe.

Roger Federer is terrific and Rafael Nadal is a budding superstar, but Agassi played in an era with many challengers, including Sampras, Jim Courier, Boris Becker, Michael Chang, Michael Stich and Ivan Lendl, just to name a few. Agassi was once at the bottom of the sport, playing horribly, and though he is showing his age now, he is still a great player. I for one, hope that he goes out with a bang.

Tennis and even some in the sports world itself are going to sorely miss Andre Agassi and what he brought to the game.

SOURCES

Agassis Image Wasnt Everything. The Hartford Courant, Monday, August 28, 2006.