Andre Agassi transformed tennis with his rock-star image, then shocked the world by admitting he hated tennis all along. Born on April 29, 1970, in Las Vegas, Nevada, Agassi went from reluctant prodigy to eight-time Grand Slam champion.
His bio reads like a Hollywood script, complete with drug scandals, dramatic comebacks, and a storybook romance with fellow tennis legend Steffi Graf.
Biography
Andre Kirk Agassi’s story begins with an obsessive father and a homemade tennis court. His dad, Emmanuel “Mike” Agassi, represented Iran as a boxer in the 1948 and 1952 Olympics before immigrating to the United States. The elder Agassi built a tennis court in their Las Vegas backyard and subjected young Andre to relentless training that Agassi would later describe as emotionally abusive in his brutally honest 2009 memoir, “Open.”
At just 13, Agassi was shipped off to Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy in Florida. His father could only afford three months, but Bollettieri was so impressed he offered free placement. It was a turning point, though not entirely a happy one. Agassi dropped out of school in ninth grade and turned professional at 16 in 1986, thrust into the professional circuit before most teenagers can drive.
His junior career showed early promise as he won the 1982 National Indoor Boys 14s Doubles Championship in Chicago at age 12, and quickly made waves on the professional tour with his flashy image. Long hair, earrings, denim shorts, and neon colours made him look more like a rock star than an athlete. The tennis establishment wasn’t quite sure what to make of him, but sponsors absolutely loved it.
Career
Agassi’s professional career was nothing short of spectacular, even if he privately loathed the sport that made him famous. He amassed 870 career wins against 274 losses, a 76% winning percentage that placed him amongst tennis royalty. His prize money totalled £24 million ($31,152,975), though his real earnings came from endorsement deals worth hundreds of millions more.
Agassi won eight major titles: Wimbledon in 1992 (his breakthrough moment), the US Open in 1994 and 1999, the Australian Open in 1995, 2000, 2001, and 2003, and the French Open in 1999. During the French Open, he rallied from being down 1-6, 2-6 against Andrei Medvedev to complete the Career Grand Slam, becoming only the fifth man in history to achieve the feat at that time.
He didn’t stop there. Agassi became the first male player to win all four Grand Slam singles titles on three different surfaces: hard court, grass, and clay. Add an Olympic gold medal from the 1996 Atlanta Games, and you’ve got one of just three men ever to complete the Career Golden Slam.
Agassi spent 101 weeks at World No. 1 across six separate periods between 1995 and 2003. He finished 1999 as year-end No. 1 and became the oldest player to reach the top spot at 33 years and 13 days in April 2003. But his career wasn’t a smooth ascent. After falling to No. 141 in November 1997, he orchestrated the most significant one-year jump into the top 10 in ATP history by returning to No. 6 in 1998.
The Dark Chapter
The 1997 season nearly ended everything. Agassi’s ranking plummeted, his marriage to actress Brooke Shields was crumbling, and he tested positive for crystal methamphetamine. He wrote a letter to the ATP claiming he’d “unwittingly” drunk from a soda spiked with the drug by his assistant. The ATP accepted his explanation and issued only a warning.
The truth came out in “Open.” Agassi admitted the entire story was fabricated. He’d used the drug recreationally and lied to avoid suspension. The revelation in 2009 shocked the tennis world, with reactions ranging from disappointment to calls for him to return prize money and titles. The book also disclosed his profound hatred of tennis throughout his career and confirmed that he wore a hairpiece early on, which nearly fell off at the 1990 French Open.
He staged a remarkable comeback in 1999, winning the French Open and US Open whilst reclaiming the No. 1 ranking.
Personal Life
Agassi married actress Brooke Shields on April 19, 1997, at St. John’s Episcopal Chapel in Monterey, California. The marriage lasted barely two years, with divorce filed just before their second anniversary on April 9, 1999. The relationship’s collapse coincided with Agassi’s career crisis.
His second marriage proved far more enduring. Agassi married tennis legend Steffi Graf on October 22, 2001, in a private barefoot ceremony in their Las Vegas backyard, wearing jeans with only their mothers as witnesses. They celebrated their 24th wedding anniversary in October 2025, with Agassi calling Graf his “unicorn” on social media.
The couple have two children. Jaden Gil Agassi was born on October 26, 2001, now 24 years old, whilst Jaz Elle Agassi arrived on October 3, 2003 and is currently 22. Neither followed their parents into tennis, a deliberate choice by Agassi and Graf.
Jaden pursued professional baseball instead. He graduated from the University of Southern California, where he pitched from 2021 to 2023, then played for the Mahoning Valley Scrappers in 2024 with an impressive 2.96 ERA. In March 2025, he competed for Team Germany in World Baseball Classic Qualifiers. He speaks German fluently, visits his maternal grandparents in Germany twice annually, and has stated his goal is to “make Agassi a baseball name.”
Jaz maintains a notably private life focused on dancing and horseback riding, with occasional Instagram updates but little public exposure. Both parents have been adamant about not imposing tennis on their children. As Graf explained in a 2024 interview, “We never really introduced tennis so much into their lives. They’ve chosen other things.”
The family resides in Summerlin, in the Las Vegas Valley, where Graf’s mother and brother also live.
Net Worth
Andre Agassi’s net worth is estimated between £115 million and £138 million ($145-175 million), built through his tennis career, savvy business investments, and lucrative endorsement deals. At his peak, he earned approximately £20 million ($25 million) annually from sponsors alone, with Forbes reporting £22 million ($28 million) in 2004.
His most iconic partnership was with Nike, a landmark £79 million ($100 million) lifetime deal spanning 1988 to 2005, then resuming in 2013. Other major sponsors included Canon’s famous “Image is Everything” campaign, American Express, Head Racquets, Adidas, and 24-Hour Fitness.
Real estate investments have been mixed. He sold his Las Vegas home on Spanish Heights Drive in 2021 for £1.9 million ($2.39 million), the very property with the tennis court where he’d trained. The Tiburon, California, estate he purchased with Graf for £18 million ($23 million) in 2001 was sold in January 2007 for £15.8 million ($20 million), resulting in a £2.4 million loss.
In businesses, he invested £790,000 ($1 million) in Nevada First Bank in 1999 and sold for a £7.9 million ($10 million) profit, a 1000% return. Current investments include Square Panda educational technology (with a £39 million/$50 million commitment to educate 5 million children in India), DUPR pickleball rating system (approximately 21.9% ownership following a £6.3 million/$8 million funding round in 2024), and Evolv Technologies.
He announced Agassi Sports Entertainment Corp in April 2025, a sports entertainment company that has partnered with IBM to transform global racquet sports.
Life After Retirement
Agassi retired from professional tennis in 2006, but his post-retirement life might be even more impactful than his playing career.. The Andre Agassi Charitable Association, founded in 1994, has raised between £142 million and £146 million ($180-185 million) since its inception.
The Andre Agassi College Preparatory Academy opened in 2001 in Historic West Las Vegas with Agassi personally donating £27.6 million ($35 million). The school achieved remarkable results: the first three graduating classes posted 100% graduation rates and 100% college acceptance rates. In 2017, operations transferred to Democracy Prep, allowing the foundation to transition to a private grant-making model.
The Turner-Agassi Charter School Facilities Fund is his most significant educational impact. Founded in 2011 with Bobby Turner, the fund has opened 122 schools on 52 campuses serving over 100,000 students nationwide, more than doubling initial projections. It operates as a “bridge developer” for high-performing charter school networks, including KIPP, Democracy Prep, and Rocketship Education, across low to moderate-income communities.
Pickleball has become his primary athletic focus. He made his professional pickleball debut in April 2025 at the US Open Pickleball Championships in Naples, Florida, partnering with No. 1-ranked Anna Leigh Waters. They won their debut match before being eliminated in Round 3. He competed in Pickleball Slam 3 in Las Vegas in February 2025 with Graf against Andy Roddick and Genie Bouchard, and won the inaugural televised Pickleball Slam on ESPN in April 2023.
Beyond competition, Agassi was appointed inaugural chair of Life Time’s Racquet Sports Board in 2024, launched a branded pickleball equipment line with JOOLA, and invested in DUPR as both a board member and significant stakeholder.
