I was first introduced to the game of tennis when my mother enrolled me in lessons at the age of four, at Washington Court Athletic Club in Medina, Ohio. I liked the concept, (what four year old doesn’t like a big racket and 500 yellow balls?) but once I was old enough to start playing baseball, the tennis bag was relegated to the hall closet for the next few years.

I was big into baseball throughout my career at Sidney Fenn Elementary. In fact, I had planned on playing third base for the Oakland A’s once the whole school thing was over. If I was lucky, my hero Jose Canseco might still be playing there and I could finally get his autograph.

Unfortunately, once junior high came around, baseball required travel and it was a lot more expensive to join the leagues. Despite my great love of the game, I took a sabbatical which continues to this date.

Fortunately, I still had the membership at the club and tennis was the sport of choice at WCAC. I enrolled for the “advanced beginner” classes and showed up ready to roll with my Dad’s Pancho Gonzalez wooden racquet. The first instructor I met was John, who was the son of the club pro. John looked at my racquet and simply said “No.” He gave me his Slazenger demo to play with, and advised that I purchase a more current model.

The club pro was a lady named Kris. She was the same lady who yelled at me for goofing off during my initial pee-wee lessons years earlier. We again got off to a good start, this time she yelled at me for hitting the ball over the fence and screaming “home run!”. After I finished running laps around the court, I ran out to my awaiting mother’s car and asked politely if a more modern tennis racquet was in the family budget.

The next week I showed up with my new $15 oversized aluminum frame, plastic strings and all, ready to rock the tennis world. While waiting in the pro shop for the lesson to start, I noticed an ad on the wall showing a guy with long hair who looked like a rock star crushing a ball. I motioned to John and asked “Who’s that?” to which he replied “That’s Andre Agassi.”

Immediately I was captivated by this character. Most of the tennis players I knew were dorks. There was never anything cool about Stefan Edberg. Tennis players wore goofy little white shorts and pulled their socks up too high. This guy looked like he could be in Guns ‘n’ Roses. Since there was no internet back then, I went to the library and looked up “Andre Agassi” in the microfiche files. I printed out 5 articles for a dollar, and went home with all the recent press about this interesting looking fellow.

Facts that I recall from those articles to this day: Andre turned pro at the age of 16, had been ranked as high as #3 in the world, and his best major result was reaching the finals of the French Open. His father was an Armenian-Iranian immigrant who had been a boxer, and Andre was brought up in Las Vegas, Nevada with his brother and sister.

A few weeks later I was getting some food at the club’s snack bar and the TV behind the counter was showing an Agassi match. It was an early round match of the 1990 U.S. Open and Agassi was pounding the ball in a manner that I had not seen before. He’d smack a 90 mph forehand and it would polish the sideline. Amazing. Later on he would crack another one that might have just caught the line but was called out. He went over to the chair and started screaming at the umpire. I loved this guy!

I watched as many matches as my intrusive schooling schedule would allow, and after two weeks, Agassi had made it all the way to the final. He was slated to play some dweeby looking kid named Pete Sampras. “Ha! Good luck kid! You’re going dowwwwn!” While his new #1 superfan was awaiting a full celebration with cake and ice cream, Agassi was dominated in straight sets.

Not to worry, fanboy numero uno wasn’t going anywhere. I was in on the ground floor and it would be even sweeter when Agassi took out the field at the Australian Ope.. oh, he doesn’t play Australia? Okay. Well, then he’ll kick everyone ass at the French next year!

So, Le Tournament d’ Roland Garros rolled around again, and Andre had a fairly easy time of it. He got to beat up on the likes of Patrick McEnroe and Petr Korda early on, and he lost a total of five games in the quarterfinals. He dropped a set but otherwise embarassed Boris Becker in the semis, and I was ready to watch him plow through the up and coming American, Jim Courier like a red-headed stepchild. Five sets and three rain delays later, Agassi was again defeated by one of his countrymen, making him 0 for 3 in slam finals.

The biggest news at the French that year was the fact that Agassi was actually going to play Wimbledon that year, to which I thought: “Wait a minute, he hasn’t been playing Wimbledon either?” Now I’m really starting to wonder about this guy. He finally put on the white shirt and he put together a good run on the grass, finally going out to another American, David Wheaton in the quarters.

I was trying to recall the wild outfit that he wore at the 1991 U.S. Open, but I couldn’t, because he lost in the first round to another yankee, Aaron Krickstein. Maybe Andre should have poisoned the Gatorade at Davis Cup practice.

Moving forward to 1992, Australia is still out of sight, out of mind. On to the French, where Agassi manages to beat Sampras, only to lose again to Courier in the semifinals.

Two weeks later at Wimbledon, he rolls through some trying early matches before getting the big test. A five set quarterfinal against Boris Becker on Boris’ favorite surface. Agassi’s return trumps Becker’s serve and Andre pulls out the fifth set 6-3.

Agassi appears to be on a collision course with Sampras in the final until Pete loses his semifinal match to a giant Croatian with a giant serve named Goran Ivanisevic. Andre steamrolls John McEnroe and is clear of any remaining Americans. I think he was happy to hear that, but not so happy to hear that the 6’5” Ivanisevic could hit a serve 135 mph.

Andre knows how to put on a show, and he certainly did that Sunday. After losing the first set 10-8 in a tiebreak, he rallied back to take the second and third sets 6-4. When everything appeared to be going well, Agassi was blown out in the fourth dropping his serve twice and falling 6-1 to force a decisive fifth set. As with the second and third sets, Andre only need one break of serve to win the fifth 6-4 and finally become a Grand Slam champion.

As it’s been with many other champions, the weight of lifting that first trophy was too much. He went out in the quarters of the U.S. Open, missed the French and made it to the quarters in his attempt to defend Wimbledon. And that’s when things were still going good. His next three slam appearances ended in the first, second and fourth rounds.

The drought did not last forever, and Agassi came to an oasis at the U.S. Open in 1994. Entering the tournament unseeded, he rolled through the early rounds, met moderate resistance from fellow Americans Todd Martin and Michael Chang later, and blasted Michael Stich in straight sets to bring the whole thing home.

After coming back from the brink of one slam wonderdom, Andre had a change of heart and decided to kick off 1995 by flying down to Australia to try his hand at the tennis down there. Wouldn’t you know it, he rolled through the first six matches and then humbled his number one ranked rival Pete Sampras in a four set final. That’s three trophies at three different slams for those who are counting.

Agassi reached the number one ranking for the first time in April of 1995, displacing Pete Sampras, who had held the spot for 19 months. Despite having his best win-loss record of his career in 1995, his Australian Open victory in January was his last major win for the next four years. He made it back to the finals of the U.S. Open, but lost the match and the number one ranking to Sampras.

1996 was when things started to get rough for Andre. A Gold Medal victory at the Olympics in Atlanta was about the only highlight of a year where he posted a 38-14 record.

Following a terrible record and significant time off in 1997, Agassi fought harder than ever in to climb back into the rankings. After falling to #141 in the world, he played “minor league” challenger events to rack up enough points to receive invitations to the majors in 1998.

It paid off at the French Open in 1999, when Agassi rallied past Andrei Medvedev after losing the first two sets to win the final, and complete his career Grand Slam. Two weeks later he made it to the finals of Wimbledon, before losing in three to Pete. Later on in the year Agassi won his fifth career major at the U.S. Open besting Todd Martin in five sets.

Agassi started the new millenium in style, with a victory in Australia. He defended his title in 2001, and won his eighth and final major there in 2003.

He wrote the final chapter in his tennis career this week at his 21st consecutive U.S. Open. Fortunately for Andre, no one will remember his four set loss to Benjamin Becker. People will more likely recall his five set win over Marcos Baghdatis in the previous round, or his last four matches from the 2005 Open, or how about any of his 34 matches against Pete Sampras?

Andre Agassi will be long remembered as not only a great champion, but also as a great philanthropist. He has been frequently recognized as one of the most charitably generous athletes, particularly in his native Las Vegas. He opened the Boys & Girls Club in 1997, and the Andre Agassi College Preparatory Academy in 2001. To date, the Andre Agassi Charitable Foundation has raised over 50 million dollars for at-risk children and families.

As his friend and former rival Jim Courier noted this week: “Andre’s greatest achievements are yet to come.”