Inside the life of Pete Sampras including crystal meth binges

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American tennis legend Andre Agassi is considered as one of the most dominant players in the sport of all time. Dubbed as the greatest service returner in the history of the game, Agassi flourished between the early 1990s to the mid-2000s.

The former world No 1 had a trophy-laden career which saw him claim eight Grand Slam titles, as well as the ‘Career Grand Slam’ for winning each of the four major tennis tournaments – the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open – at least once.

Interestingly, Agassi, along with Rafael Nadal, are the only two men to have won a ‘Golden Slam’, with the American winning the Gold medal at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.

The Las Vegas native also helped the US to three Davis Cup wins in a career which saw him bag a staggering 60 singles titles.

For an American tennis player, there’s no better place to bring an end to your career at the US Open. However, Agassi, now 51, was unable to do just that as he called time on his career at Flushing Meadows almost 17 years ago.

The eight-time Slam winner bowed out in the third round to Benjamin Becker on September 3, 2006. It was a short, but dramatic run in New York, a place he was twice been a champion and a four-time runner-up.

It was a special moment as the 23,000 crowd at the Arthur Ashe Stadium gave Agassi a four-minute standing ovation as he delivered an emotional farewell speech.

Agassi, who was 36 at the time, finally knew it was time to call an end to his career after suffering crippling back pain that required pain killing injections before every match.

Having openly admitted his hatred for tennis, it was quite remarkable that he kept playing until the age of 36.

In his book autobiography, Open, ghostwritten by JR Moehringer, the same writer behind Prince Harry’s explosive memoir, Spare, Agassi wrote: “I play tennis for a living, even though I hate tennis, hate it with a dark and secret passion, and always have.”

One of the more controversial moments of his career also came in his book, with Agassi recalling how he took crystal meth and failed a drugs test in 1997, as he admitted: “It was a period in my life where I needed help.”

In 2017, Agassi sensationally came out of retirement to help a struggling Novak Djokovic at Wimbledon.

He coached the Serbian star – a recent winner of the 2022 Australian Open – for about a year, from the French Open in 2017 to April 2018, with Djokovic not winning any of the four Slams during that time. The pair later went their seperate ways after it was reported that they failed to see eye to eye on a number of ocassions.

Away from the court, Agassi dated high profile stars such as Barbra Streisand and Brooke Shields, before marrying tennis legend Steffi Graf, herself a 22-time Grand Slam winner, in 2001.

The pair share to children together. Their son, Jaden, was born in October 2001, and the couple had their daughter, Jaz Elle, two years later in October 2003.

Off the court, since he retired, he set up the Andre Agassi Charitable Foundation that has raised tens of millions of dollars for at risk children in Nevada, where he grew up.

He personally donated £29m ($35m) to the Andre Agassi College Preparatory Academy in Las Vegas, a school for at-risk children in the area.

Despite a controversial and glittering career which ended 17 years ago, Agassi will forever be remembered as one of the most popular players of all time – on and off the court.

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