On Wednesday April 29th Andre Agassi will be celebrating a brand new milestone in his life.
The former American tennis star turns 50 today and to celebrate Ubitennis has constructed five interesting facts about Agassi’s standout career. Between 1987-2005 he won 60 titles on the ATP Tour with 48 of those occurring on a hard court. On top of that he also made 61 appearances in grand slam main draws, which was nine more than former rival Pete Sampras.
Here are five things you should know about Agassi’s life as a tennis player.
1. His historic 1994 US Open win
At the age of 24, Agassi re-wrote the record books at the 1994 US Open when he lifted his maiden grand slam title. He became the first player in the tournament’s history to defeat five seeded players in a row. Scoring wins over Wayne Ferreira (12), Michael Chang (6), Thomas Muster (13), Todd Martin (9) and Michael Stich (4). Against those five players he lost only three sets. Two against Chang in the fourth round and one against Martin in the semi-finals.
At the same tournament Agassi became the first unseeded player in the Open Era to lift the men’s title and the first since Fred Stolle back in 1966. Since then, the US Open men’s title has always been won by a seeded player.
2. Record against top 10 opposition
Agassi achieved a total of 109 wins over top 10 players throughout his career against 90 losses. Working out as a winning percentage of 55%. Out of the 109, 10 of his victories were against somebody ranked No.1 at the time. Incredibly, there is a 19-year gap between his first top-10 scalp and last. His first was against Pat Cash (No.7) in 1987 and the last was against Marcos Baghdatis (No.8) in 2006.
List of wins over No.1 players
1990 – Defeats Pat Rafter at the ATP World Tour Championships
1992 – Defeats Stefan Edberg in the Davis Cup
1994 – Defeats Pete Sampras in Paris, France
1995 – Defeats Sampras at the Australian Open. Later that same year he also got the better of his compatriot at the Miami Masters
1998 – Three years later he scores two more victories over No.1 Sampras in San Jose and Toronto
2000 – Upsets Marat Safin at the Tennis Masters Cup
2001 – Defeats Gustavo Kuerten in Los Angeles
2002 – Last victory over a No.1 player was at his home grand slam in Flushing Meadows when he stunned Lleyton Hewitt
3. His time at the top
50-year-old Agassi spent a total of 101 weeks as world No.1 between 1995 and 2003. Overall, he enjoyed six different stints at the top with his longest reign being 52 consecutive weeks between 1999-2000.
Agassi has the ninth-longest No.1 reign in ATP rankings history. He is one out of five American men to have held the top spot for more than 100 weeks.
Periods as world No.1
| First | April 10, 1995 | November 5, 1995 | 30 weeks | ||
| Second | January 29, 1996 | February 11, 1996 | 2 weeks | ||
| Third | July 5, 1999 | July 25, 1999 | 3 weeks | ||
| Fourth | September 13, 1999 | September 10, 2000 | 52 weeks | ||
| Fifth | April 28, 2003 | May 11, 2003 | 2 weeks | ||
| Sixth | June 16, 2003 | September 7, 2003 | 12 weeks |
4. The record he shares with Nadal
In 1996 the American stuck gold on home soil when he lifted the men’s title at the Atlanta Olympic Games. As the top seed in the tournament, he dropped only six games against Spain’s Sergi Bruguera in the final, which was the best-of-five sets. It was at the same tournament where he defeated Italy’s Andrea Gaudenzi in the third round. Gaudenzi is now the chairman of the ATP Tour.
The victory made Agassi the first man in history to have won all four grand slam titles and a singles Olympic gold medal in their career. An achievement that has only ever been replicated by Rafael Nadal. The current world No.2 achieved the milestone when he clinched his maiden US Open trophy back in 2013.
5. A prize money great
Despite retiring almost 14 years ago, Agassi remains one of the highest earning tennis players of all-time. He made a total of $31,152,975 in prize money during his career in what is the eighth highest amount in the history of men’s tennis. Five out of the seven ranked above him are still playing on the professional circuit. The two exceptions being David Ferrer and Pete Sampras.
