Agassi made people care

It was great to see Andre Agassi inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame over the weekend, not only because he deserved it, but because Agassi was always a special player to me.

In fact, Agassi was my first “favorite” tennis player. I can remember watching the young showman on TV playing in Boston when I was a kid, and I rooted for him in almost every match he played for the rest of his career (as a journalist who covered James Blake in from 2002-06, I rooted for Blake in his epic U.S. Open quarterfinal match against Agassi).

Agassi, to me, was like one of my favorite pro sports teams. I lived and died with his matches in the grand slams. When he won Wimbledon, his first major, I was with my family en route to Virginia, where we were going to spend a week with my uncle and his family. We arrived at their house just in time to see match point, and I recall thinking about that much often on our drive. Like Mary Carillo said, no tennis player could make people care about them as much as Agassi.

No player could possibly have provided more ups and downs to his fans than Agassi, which made the victories that much more rewarding. The French Open losses to Gomez and Courier were excruciating; so, later in his career, were the Wimbledon losses to Rafter and Sampras. But what makes the connection with Agassi so interesting is that the flashy, charismatic young guy was the one I first became a huge fan of, but it was the driven, focused, methodical, stoic punisher who I appreciated far more. There will never be another guy quite like him, and it was a pleasure to have been along for the ride.