Nothing short of legendary; Tennis’ Andre Agassi
Notably known to be one of the greatest tennis professionals of all times, America’s Andre Agassi bagged 8 grand slam singles titles amongst an innumerable amount of ATP tour and Masters Series titles during his career. Formerly ranked number one in the
world, in addition to his achievements, Agassi has attained a number of records in the open-era of tennis.
During the 1990’s, Andre became the only player till date to win a ‘Career Super Slam.’ In the year 1990, Agassi defeated Sweden’s Stefan Edberg in the ATP World Tour Masters in Miami to clinch the singles title. Edberg was defeated 6-1, 6-4, 0-6 and 6-2
by the American.
Two years down the line, Agassi made it through to the 1992 Wimbledon Championship finals. The tennis ace was up against Croatia’s Goran Ivanišević in the final. As the match started off, Goran took the first set 6–7 (8–10.)
Agassi however, made a comeback only to take the second and third set 6–4 and 6–4. The Croatian managed to take the fourth set 1–6. Nonetheless, the deciding fifth set went in favour of Andre, as he defeated Ivanišević 6–4, to take the title.
Additionally, the American sportsman defeated Belgium’s Michael Stich to take the 1994 U.S. Open Men’s singles title. Upon annihilating Stich 6–1, 7–6 (7–5), 7–5, in the championship final, Agassi came to be the first ever unseeded U.S. Open champion, in
the open era.
In the year that followed, Andre made a place for himself at the finals of the 1995 Australian Open men’s singles category. Upon making it through, Agassi was faced by fellow country man, Pete Sampras. Sampras took the first set 6-4.
However, Agassi came around to take the second set 6-1 and the third set 7-6 (8-6,) prior to taking the deciding fourth set, 6-1. This marked Andre’s first Australian Open and the third grand slam win of the year.
One year later, the American sportsman bagged a Gold Medal at the 1996 Summer Olympics, in the men’s singles category. Andre defeated Spain’s Sergi Bruguera to come out victorious at the event. Bruguera was defeated 6-2, 6-3 and verily, 6-1 by Agassi to
acquire the gold medal.
Three years later, Andre triumphed at the 1999 French Open defeating Ukraine’s Andrei Medvedev, to clinch the championship title. Medvedev got off to a good start as he took the first set 6-1. Agassi was unable to reciprocate as the Ukrainian went on to
take the second set 6-2.
Agassi nevertheless, showed Andrei what he was all about in the following three sets of the match, as the gruelling five set final was brought to a close just as Andre took the third set 6-4 followed by the fourth set 6-5 and the deciding fifth set, 6-4.
The win not only marked Agassi’s first French Open title, but also noted a ‘Career Super Slam,’ for the American tennis professional. Upon winning all four grand slam championships, Andre successfully completed his ‘Career Grand Slam.’ That however, certainly
wasn’t all. Achieving all that he did in the 90’s, Agassi also achieved a ‘Career Golden Slam,’ as he also won a Gold Medal at the ’96 Olympics.
It wasn’t until the year 2010 that Andre’s Career Golden Slam record was tied up with another player until Spain’s Rafael Nadal made a record of his own, by winning all four grand slams and an Olympic Gold Medal.
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