Andre Agassi-an underachiever

by Suketu Shah

Double A needs no introduction so I will not waste yr time and mine getting into the details of his achievements or biodata.I was a hugh(and hugh meaning really HUGH fan of double A when he had long hair,neon colored clothing,long nails,attitude etc late 80’s and early 90’s especially when he won Wimbledon 1992 against all odds.Inspite of everything hes achieved

and the crown stopper that hes always been ,there is no doubt in my mind that he has been a serious underachiever.

1)He turned professional in 1986 but did not play the Australian Open till 1995.And ,as you know(and for those who donot) he won Aussie Open in 1995 and 3 more times and has something like a 50-5 record there.Really makes you wonder why he bunked Aussie Open for 9 years and how many more Aussie Opens he would have won if he had played there before 1995 especially with the speed he had early in his career .

2)Wimbledon
Like Aussie Open,Double A didnot play at Wimbledon till 1991 when he lost in 5 tight sets to David Wheaton.Next yr ,against all odds he won Wimbledon.Although he never won Wimbledon ever again(reaching the finals in 1999 before losing to Sampras) ,he really would be regretting he didnot play W 1987-1990 when the field wanot too tough with only Cash,Lendl,Becker and Edberg as the really genuine contenders.Again her AA’s groundstrokes were extremely sharp and probably a title went abegging since he didnot play for 4 years.

3)Record against Sampras at the US Open
He played Sampras 4 times at Flushing Medows,New York and lost all 4.
1st time was in 1990 when AA was a top seed and Sampras the underdog.Sampras bt him (or rather) thrashed an overconfident Agassi in st sets to become the youngest player to win USOpen.
2nd time was in 1995 when AA won 28 straight matches leading up to the USOpen finals and was the no 1 player in the world.He was hot favourite to win the title but was quickly (and surprisingly ) 2 sets to love and never ever recovered to lose in 4.This was a crushing defeat for double A.
3rd time was 2001 US Open quarter finals where AA/Sampras played one of the all time great matches in the history of the sport.Neither of them every lost serve and the total unforced errors was less that 25.Both were red hot and it was sad to see double A lose the match in 4 tiebreaks.Sampras lost in the finals to Aussie Teen Lleyton Hewitt.
4th time was 2002 USOpen finals where AA was against red hot and Sampras fallen out of the top 10 in rankings.AA was again hot favourite to win but lost in 4.Sampras retired after winning US Open and AA was left to ponder on what if....

I'm sure all the 4 losses hurt AA more than any as he could have had 12 Slams,and not 8.

A major problem with double A is he plays too fast even when hes losing which means he is making it easier for the opponents to beat him.Also he does not have a ’’B’’ plan when his A plan is not working(although that changed when ’Winning Ugly’’ Brad Gilbert become his coach).As double A moves towards the end of his career ,his fans wl be disappointed at his underachievement plus his inability to retire at the top(His back injuries are forcing him out of every 2nd tournament of 2006,he shd have gracefully retired after losing US Open 2005 finals to Roger Federer,the greatest player ever in the history of the sport)