If I remember correctly, my first tennis match on TV was French open final 1989 or 1990. It was Agassi playing some other guy. For some strange reason I liked tennis at my first moment it self. More over it was Agassi. Then he had long hair sprawling out behind his head through his cap. He was very young. He looked really careless. I felt that he gave more importance to other things like fashion than Tennis. Still it was interesting thing to watch him playing. Over the years I saw so much change in his game and attitude. Attitude wise I guess he is the real champion in the present tennis world.
Basically Agassi is a baseline player unlike Sampras. Sampras style suits very well to fast courts. Sampras is tall (6.2 feet) and have very good service. He plays serve and volley. It definitely looks very good to watch him serve and volley on green Wimbledon grass courts. Agassi was 5 feet 11 inches tall. His service was not that great like Sampras. So he always preferred to play baseline game. I guess people like both styles. Some times people having very good service win games with just their booming serves. There game doesn't look appealing as people love to see rallies. I guess thats why I loved Agassi. More over people consider him the best returner of serve in this era.
I am not sure whether people know this fact. There have been only 5 people till now in the history of Tennis to win all the four grandslams in their career. Andre Agassi is the 5th person to do so. Amazing. Right? Funny thing is at the beginning of his career he reached French open finals twice. That too in consecutive years. He lost both the times. Still everyone thought that he would win a bunch of French open granslam in his career. No one expected him to win Wimbledon because his style doesn't suit grass courts. Surprisingly he won the first grandslam in England. I mean it was wimbledon. I am sure even Agassi might not have expected that. I guess one time he also said so. Any way after that he kept on trying to win French open. It didn't work for long time. One time he said he was getting desperate to get French open as it was the one eluding lot of people in their career.
In 1995 he openly gave a statement that he would beat Sampras to win the Australian open. He won this beating Sampras. Then he said he would become number one. He did. Then he married beautiful actress Brook Shields. By the end of 1997 he had to take divorce and go through slump in his career. He had to see his sister fighting for her life battling breast cancer. Because of wrist problem, his ranking slid to worst ever 147 in his career. Finally at the end of 1998, when his father was in hospital, he promised his father that he would take tennis very serious. He kept his promise and started playing dictating tennis. Starting with French open in 1999 he reached all four grandslam finals losing just Wimbledon title. First time he won French open. I still remember he had tears in his eyes when he lifted the cup. It was a great finals. It was with Andre Medvedev. Agassi lost first two sets by 6-3, 6-3. Everyone thought that he would lose one more finals. But Agassi knew that it would be his last chance to win the French open. It would be his last chance to redeem him self not only in the French open history but in the history of tennis too. Finally he won the open in 5 sets.
French open requires one to be really strong both mentally and physically. It is famous for its red clay. Some times you see red dust coming off the court. Ball doesn't move that faster compared to hard courts and grass courts. You need patience and good forehand and backhand. You need very good baseline paly. You need to attack the serves like anything. It is grueling tennis compared to other surfaces. It takes all your energy out of you to win the game. Sampras never won the French open. It remained to be a impossible thing to achieve for lot of people. But Agassi proved to be a superstar winning all the 4 grandslams on 4 surfaces. He is definitely true superstar. He was the one who made Tennis a famous sport among people. He was the one who changed the rich people sport to common people sport. That was the charisma of Agassi.
In 1999 he got married to another Tennis superstar Steffi Graph. I felt so happy when I read that news. Its kind of great when two greats get married. Now they are blessed with one boy and one girl. Now Agassi is retired from the game and doing good social service. Once upon a time he was considered brat of tennis. But in the middle of his career he became true ambassador of tennis. His way of showing respect to people by bowing to four sides of stadium became legendary.
In USA everyone has great respect for Agassi. It is not only because of his tennnis, but also because of his social service. He is running free school to homeless children. His school is among the top schools in USA. By the way people call Agassi Vegas kid as he is from Los Vegas.
I always liked Agassi like anything. I used to get really upset when ever he lost important matches. He has been always inspiration to me in my life. I show my respect to Agassi by having one big poster in my apartment. If you visit my place you can see his poster saying Agassi-Legendary. It shows the grandslams he has won and what years he has won them. I think for me Agassi is the true champion in the tennis.
Now I really don't care that much about mens tennis. It has become kind of boring over the years as Federer is dominating the sport like anything. Lately there have been some good players emerging. Especially Djokovic. Last week Nalabandian proved to be a strong nemesis to Federer. He proved to everyone that on his day he would beat anyone whether the other person is number one or two or three. I hope its going to be exciting in the near future. Lets wait and see what happens.
For me womens tennis started attracting like anything. I am sure you have started smiling thinking why I watch women's tennis. You are absolutely wrong about that. Have you ever seen Justine Henin playing? Oh my God I have never seen any one in the history of Tennis like that. You know what? She has every shot in the Tennis. She plays every shot thats there in the books. Especially she has gorgeous one handed backhand. Go to the youtube and try to see Justine Henin matches. Amazing. Considering that she is short and thin compared all other women on the circuit, its definitely great to become number one in the sport. She proved that she deserves number one spot by beating every other player including Williams sisters. Serena Williams always boasts about her self like great player. She uses her power but not finesse. Where as Justine game with sheer talent and finesse.
Recently Justine beat Serena Williams in every quarter finals of grandslams. First she gave some stupid reason saying that she lost the game because she was not completely fit. Second time she said she had some other problem. Third time during the US open she said she would win this. In the end she lost like anything. She proved her self to be a barking dog rather than biting dog.
One great thing about Justine is her ability to be strong mentally. I have never seen her crying on the court after loss. She lost in many finals of grandslams in year 2006. She never cried or yelled at others or showed too much happiness on the court. Maria Sharapova thinks that Justine is the strong women in the women circuit, not physically but mentally. I guess thats what everyone needs to succeed in their lives.
Any way it is pure blessing to watch Justine playing. I hope she keeps winning like this. She lost her last match in the Wimbledon to Marion Barthorli in the Semifinals. It was kind huge upset and shocking. She admitted that Barthorli was better on that day and she was too tired to play her best. She proved it by beating Barthroli by 6-0, 6-0 in the ongoing WTA Sony Ericsson championships. Now she is in another finals in this year. I hope she wins this event this year too. She is going to play against Maria Sharapova who is very dangerous to play with given the day belongs to her.
This year Justine won total of 9 titles including two grandslams French open and US open. He reached semifinals of all the events she played this year. That is the consistency she has shown which is impossible to see in this time. Now she is riding on 24 consecutive match wins. I hope she keeps that by winning against Sharapova tomorrow. The gradslam that is missing in her collection is Wimbledon. I hope she wins it next year. This is the third year she is ending as number one. The point difference between her and second ranked Svethlana is huge. She has won her 4th French open this year. She is the only one to win 3 French opens consecutively in the oepn era after another great player Monica Seles. All these credentials reflect that Justine truly deserves number one ranking.
She missed Australian open this year because of personal crisis in her life. She had to go through divorce. Still she came on top overcoming all problems. If you are looking for inspiration, then I say that she is the one you are looking for. A true inspiration indeed.
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