‘Nick, let’s go down to Boca Raton and we’ll practise.’īollettieri arrived early, a few racquets under his arm. ‘I’ve been waiting to hear your call, Andre.’ Bollettieri recalled to his conversation with Agassi. Two thousand, three hundred and seventy miles away, in Bradenton, Florida, Nick Bollettieri had been waiting. “I always found that the more I practised on grass, the worse I became” The man his father, Mike, had entrusted his faith in 1984. Picking up the phone, he dialled his coach of eight years. At midnight, five days before the start of The Championships on 22 June, Agassi made a decision. Ten days later, the world’s 14th-best player had yet to hit a tennis ball. I will be in the Mediterranean at that time.’” He then said, ‘If you get to the final, I will watch you play. I told him, ‘Very few people show up thinking they can win it.’ Speaking exclusively to, Agassi remembers, 20 years on, “When we were playing, Steve asked me, ‘So what is next?’ Here Andre Agassi came to re-group immediately after his 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 loss to Jim Courier, his former Bollettieri Academy sparring partner, in the 1992 Roland Garros semi-finals. Only a handful of guests each day get to play the 7,239-yard Shadow Creek Golf Course, built by business magnate Steve Wynn, in 1989, in northern Las Vegas. This story was originally published in June 2012. During the next two weeks will look back on memorable matches and happenings at the grass-court Grand Slam. Editor's Note: But for the COVID-19 pandemic, Wimbledon would now be underway.
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