Andre Agassi on tennis and life: “Every match is a life in miniature”

Andre Agassi’s final match came on Sept. 3, 2006, when the 36-year-old former champion faced Marcos Baghdatis before the Arthur Ashe Stadium crowd. Agassi lost to the Cypriot, bringing his professional career to an end.

Twenty years later, fans are revisiting the career of the American who became one of tennis’s biggest figures. Agassi won eight Grand Slam titles and an Olympic gold medal. He won Wimbledon in 1992, the U.S. Open in 1994, Roland Garros in 1999 and the Australian Open four times. In 1999, he completed the career Grand Slam.

His most memorable reflections appeared in Open, the memoir he published in 2009 with writer J.R. Moehringer. “It is no coincidence that tennis uses the language of life. Advantage, service, fault, break, love: the basic elements of tennis are those of everyday life, because every match is a life in miniature,” Agassi wrote.

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It is no coincidence that tennis uses the language of life. Advantage, service, fault, break, love: the basic elements of tennis are those of everyday life, because every match is a life in miniature.

He continued: “Points become games, games become sets, sets become tournaments, and everything is so closely connected that any point can become the turning point. It reminds me of how seconds become minutes, minutes become hours, and any hour can be ours. The best or the worst. It is our choice.”

The memoir also exposed the contradictions behind his success. His father trained him from early childhood, using a ball machine in the family’s Las Vegas backyard. Agassi reached fame and wealth young, but wrote that he was often unhappy and confused away from the court. The opening line of Open stunned the sports world: he hated tennis, the sport he had never wanted to choose.

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Points become games, games become sets, sets become tournaments, and everything is so closely connected that any point can become the turning point. It reminds me of how seconds become minutes, minutes become hours, and any hour can be ours. The best or the worst. It is our choice.