Agassi Hitting Back: Giving the Next Generation a Break

Few athletes in the history of sport have done more to both enchant and infuriate than reformed tennis luminary Andre Agassi. Bursting abruptly onto the world tennis scene in the late 1980’s as a handsome and captivating teenager with unorthodox apparel, Agassi’s stellar career included a career grand slam, 15 major finals and a turn as the world’s number one ranked player.

By the late 90’s, Agassi’s life looked a portfolio of perfection; he had fame, talent and money, but the glare of an intense media spotlight served only to blind onlookers.

Thirteen years after his emotional retirement from the court, Agassi shocked the world with revelations in his biography 'Open'. The confessional account proved to be a process of catharsis; Agassi admitted that his playing career had been plagued with a vehement hatred for the very sport that had brought him so much success, confessed to drug use and hauntingly explained the pressures of his difficult childhood.

Throughout an illustrious career, moments of euphoria punctuated long periods of disdain for the game – the joy on Agassi’s face after victories at Wimbledon in ’92 and the US Open in ’94 make it difficult to accept he had entirely fallen out of love with tennis – but each game, set and match brought him less relief with every passing day.

How could any tennis superstar avow to hate earning a living in a way that makes many of us feel sick with envy? The glamour, money, adoration and travel found itself blunted, and - almost unthinkably - became a force of negativity for Agassi. The extensively publicised drug problems he suffered in 1997 left him with a moment of afflatus; Agassi admitted that his drug use only served a “moment of regret followed by vast sadness”.

Agassi candidly explains the physical and mental strain suffered towards the end of his career, revealing his struggle to even emerge from his bed one morning during a spell of bad form.

"I'm a young man, relatively speaking, thirty-six” Agassi contemplates in reference to the final days of his playing career. “But I wake as if 96. After two decades of sprinting, stopping on a dime, jumping high and landing hard, my body no longer feels like my body. Consequently, my mind no longer feels like my mind."

The physical and mental strain of competing at the summit of elite sport must be demanding beyond the comprehension of those who have never experienced it. In his final days as a tennis player, Agassi wrestled with the existential realisation that his impending retirement would soon banish him from the only world he had ever known.

Indeed, Agassi had dropped out of school by the ninth grade; during his playing career he sincerely believed that he lacked the educational foundations to do anything other than play tennis. However, by the time Agassi drew the curtain on an exceptionally decorated career, he recognised that he could continue excelling as a philanthropist.

“When I finally took ownership of [my life], it came through finding a reason to care about the sport of tennis,” Agassi recalls.

“Tennis happens to be what I do; it’s not what I’m ultimately called for.  My sport was an opportunity to impact people.  My life after is a bigger canvas to impact people.

“When I was on the tennis court, I always thought it was two hours I had to impact somebody. After tennis I have concluded that I now have a bigger platform, a bigger opportunity to not just impact someone for a few hours, but to impact someone for a life change. I do that personally through education; I believe education gives you the tools to decide your own life and make this world a better place.”

In 2001, Andre Agassi opened the College Preparatory Academy in Las Vegas - a tuition-free charter school for at-risk children in his native state.  In the subsequent decade, he has raised over $60 million for children in Southern Nevada, providing underprivileged youths with a platform to achieve and excel. Agassi had recalibrated his priorities post-retirement, utilising his success in tennis as a platform to fertilise the same ground that he once fed from.

“I believe the most powerful way to empower a child is through a strong education. We’ve created an atmosphere that helps children dream of possibilities that they may not otherwise have considered for themselves, and we provide the tools and resources to help them achieve their goals.

“Longines are one of the partners to help and support this vision. It’s a wonderful thing to receive a cheque for $100,000 from them, but they have been by my side for years. I want to show that no child should ever be written off. Globally, we’re falling in education, but the state where I live – Nevada – is the lowest in the United States for the number of kids we put into college.

“So in this area of the United States, and in the poorest neighbourhood of that area, we have managed to graduate 100% of our children. They have gone on to college and a great education, and to a life of their choosing.”

Committing “80% of [his] working time to the foundation”, his achievements are not only measurable, but still a work in progress as he pursues genuine change.

“There are 650 children in my school,” Agassi crows with understandable pride. The satisfaction is only momentary, however, before he swiftly acknowledges “there are still over 1500 on the waiting list.”

“Even though I am helping 650 kids, I feel like my failures are twice as great, because there are 1500 kids that I haven’t been able to help.”

Agassi’s sentiments are rooted in personal experience; his own lack of formal education underlined the need to provide these children with an opportunity to access the facets of life that many of us take for granted.  

Agassi’s final footnote in a seemingly tragic story will illustrate how – with enough dedication, enthusiasm and motivation - turmoil can ultimately give rise to opportunity. A considerable legacy continues to develop even with his grip of a racket loosened, and the 41-year-old is showing no signs of slowing down.

“The thought of the alternative is my motivation,” he ponders with an admirable sense of responsibility to the next generation. “If I were to stop doing this, tens of thousands of children would no longer have that opportunity. The alternative is unconscionable.”

Andre Agassi is a Longines Ambassador of Elegance and founder of the Andre Agassi Foundation.

Images are courtesy of Longines.