Andre Agassi

Agassi married actress Brooke Shields in 1997, but their marriage ended in divorce in April 1999. Following the separation, Agassi cooperated with Shields to secure an annulment.

On October 22, 2001, Agassi married fellow tennis champion and Olympic gold medalist Steffi Graf. The couple has two children: a son named Jaden Gil, born in 2001, and a daughter named Jaz Elle, born in 2003.

Agassi was born in Las Vegas, Nevada, the youngest of four children to Emmanuel "Mike" Agassi and Elizabeth "Betty" Dudley Agassi. His father, an Olympic boxer who represented Iran at the 1948 and 1952 Summer Games before immigrating to the United States, was determined to train a tennis champion. Agassi began practicing on his family's backyard court as a toddler and could serve on a full court by age two. At four years old, he had the opportunity to practice with Jimmy Connors during an exhibition match in Las Vegas.

At age seven, Agassi entered and won his first junior tournament, going on to win his next eight events. When he turned thirteen, his parents sent him to Bradenton, Florida, to train at the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy. While adjusting to the academy, he continued his education with private tutors before leaving traditional high school in the ninth grade. Bollettieri helped him secure an endorsement contract with Nike, and Agassi turned professional in 1986.

Agassi quickly established a reputation on the professional tour with his aggressive baseline game, signature groundstrokes, and colorful on-court wardrobe. In November 1987, he captured his first professional title by defeating Luiz Mattar at the Sul American Open in Brazil. By 1988, he had won six tournament titles and climbed to third in the world rankings after reaching the semifinals of both the French Open and the US Open.

Despite his early success, Agassi faced criticism after losing his first three Grand Slam finals at the 1990 and 1991 French Opens and the 1990 US Open against Pete Sampras. He achieved his major breakthrough at the 1992 Wimbledon Championships, defeating Goran Ivanisevic in a five-set final to earn his first Grand Slam crown. After parting ways with Bollettieri in 1993 and undergoing wrist surgery, Agassi hired coach Brad Gilbert in 1994. Later that year, he entered the US Open unseeded and won the championship by defeating Michael Stich in the final. In 1995, Agassi won his first Australian Open title with a victory over Sampras, and in 1996 he won the men's singles gold medal at the Atlanta Olympics by defeating Sergi Bruguera.

A recurring wrist injury in 1997 severely limited Agassi's playing time, causing his world ranking to drop to 141. He mounted a determined comeback over the following two seasons, restructuring his game and physical conditioning. In 1999, Agassi won the French Open, becoming the fifth male player in tennis history to achieve a career Grand Slam and the first to accomplish the feat on three different playing surfaces: clay, grass, and hard courts.

Agassi followed his French Open triumph by winning the 1999 US Open and ending the year as the world No. 1. He captured further Grand Slam singles championships at the Australian Open in 2000, 2001, and 2003. Despite recurring back injuries in his later career, he reached the final of the 2005 US Open against Roger Federer and remained in the top tier of the sport until retiring after the 2006 US Open. In 2011, he was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame.

Agassi dedicated much of his time outside tennis to educational philanthropy. In 1994, he founded the Andre Agassi Foundation for Education to assist at-risk youth. In 2001, the organization opened the Andre Agassi College Preparatory Academy, a tuition-free public charter school in Las Vegas designed to support underserved students.

In 2009, Agassi published his bestselling autobiography, Open. He remained involved with elite tennis by coaching Novak Djokovic from 2017 to 2018 and occasionally working as a television analyst. In later years, Agassi began competing in professional pickleball, winning the inaugural Million Dollar Pickleball Slam in 2023 and subsequent tournaments alongside his wife Steffi Graf.