“My dad walked up to him, because he has no ability to feel embarrassment whatsoever, and says, ‘You know, Mr. Brown was at a club court, having set up a “money” match. In that book, and in interviews, the younger Agassi recalled his father setting up a challenge match in Vegas with NFL great and tennis buff Jim Brown when Andre was just age 9. His father’s first words to the new champ were, “You had no business losing that fourth set.” In his transcendent memoir, “Open,” Andre revisited his first Grand Slam championship, beating Goran Ivanisevic in five sets at Wimbledon in 1992. Mike Agassi was famous for his hard-driving tutelage and also his temper. He would become one of the game’s all-time great returners of service and an eight-time Grand Slam champion. He famously developed a tennis machine called “The Dragon,” which fired balls at Andre to teach him proper stroke technique.Īgassi swatted back 5,000 balls a day against that machine. Mike found young Andre especially talented and lorded over his career. He was a novice player but had a passion for the game and offered to spruce up those courts and coach guests for free.Īgassi and his wife, Elizabeth, had four children: Rita, Phillip, Tami and Andre.
Agassi quickly and took note of the hotel’s largely inactive tennis courts. In 1963, he moved to Las Vegas to take a job at the Tropicana hotel-casino. He changed his name to “Mike” upon immigrating. After the Games, he followed his brother, Samuel, to Chicago. The tennis legend offered no further comment.īorn in Iran, Emmanuel Agassi was an Olympic boxer for his homeland in 19. He was 90.Īndre Agassi said plans for any memorial would be kept private. Friday, Andre Agassi confirmed through text Tuesday night. Mike Agassi passed away at at Nathan Adelson Hospice’s Tenaya Avenue facility at 9:17 p.m.
Mike Agassi, the Las Vegas casino ambassador who pushed his son, Andre, to tennis greatness, has died. Mike Agassi, the father of Andre Agassi, loads and adjusts the ball machine used on the tennis court behind his Las Vegas house in July 1992.
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