November 9, 2009 5:05 PM
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Andre Agassi's Extraordinary Journey
Asked if that was the age when he decided that he hated tennis, Agassi told Couric, "It always came with a level of anxiety. It always came with a level of pressure. None of it really made sense to me. So I don't ever remember really not hating it."
His describes his father as prone to fits of rage, and so obsessed with tennis he thought school actually got in the way.
Asked what his father's attitude was towards school and education, Agassi told Couric, "Unnecessary, takes up too much of the day because we should be hitting tennis balls; we could literally be driving to school and he could strike a deal with us to turn the car around as long as we get out there and play additionally. He just never thought a whole lot of it. And neither did I."
He was sent to the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy in Florida when he was 14, dropped out of school in the ninth grade, and when Agassi called his dad and asked him if he should turn pro at 16, he said his father reacted like this: "He was like 'Hello? Who am I talking to? What are you gonna do? Be a doctor? You don't go to school, take the money and turn pro.' And while he was right and while I probably knew I would make that choice anyhow, I just didn't quite like the way he put it."
Agassi was quickly becoming a tennis heartthrob - his pop star good looks and unconventional outfits got plenty of attention and won him lucrative endorsement deals.
But his image, he says now, was all a façade, including his hair. It started to fall out when he was just 17. So he got a hairweave. He was terrified people would learn the truth about his trademark mane.
"What this could mean if people found out, or what does it really mean to my endorsement companies? What's it mean to my overall image? What's it mean to me? What's, you know, I was living a fraud. I mean, I was just living in a hell," he said.
He nearly found out when he finally made it to his first grand slam final at the 1990 French Open.
The night before, the unthinkable happened: his hairpiece literally fell apart in the shower and Andre and his brother frantically put it in place with a slew of bobby pins.
"First time I ever really prayed for anything as it related to a result. I was praying not for the wind but for my hair to stay on," he remembered.
"Were you afraid it was just gonna fly off?" Couric asked.
"Scared the heck out of me. I kept envisioning what this would be like if my hair just flew off and landed. Like what would I do? Would I go over and kill it or would I quickly put it back on? Do I take it home and name it? I didn't know what I was gonna do. I didn't have a plan for what I was gonna do, which is why I was trying to move less and less."
"'Cause the last shot, you just sort of stood there?" Couric asked.
"Oh yeah. When the match was over I had won," he said.
The hair had stayed on. "One of the trials and tribulations of my journey," he joked.
For most of the next two years he struggled on the court, but then came an unexpected win at Wimbledon, his first grand slam victory.
His second major win came two years later. His blistering baseline passing shots helped him capture his first U.S. Open. It was the beginning of a run of 26 consecutive victories that earned him the number one ranking in the world.
Agassi was clearly on a roll, a roll he expected to continue a year later at the 1995 U.S. Open final. His girlfriend, Brooke Shields, who had convinced him to shave his head, was there.
He lost that game to Pete Sampras.
"I hit a big wall. I lost interest. Lost desire. Lost inspiration, is what I really lost that day," he told Couric.
"Your life really went into a tailspin after that, didn't it? And it lasted quite a while," she asked.
"Yeah. I got disinterested in tennis," he said.
Copyright 2009 CBS. All rights reserved. His describes his father as prone to fits of rage, and so obsessed with tennis he thought school actually got in the way.
Asked what his father's attitude was towards school and education, Agassi told Couric, "Unnecessary, takes up too much of the day because we should be hitting tennis balls; we could literally be driving to school and he could strike a deal with us to turn the car around as long as we get out there and play additionally. He just never thought a whole lot of it. And neither did I."
He was sent to the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy in Florida when he was 14, dropped out of school in the ninth grade, and when Agassi called his dad and asked him if he should turn pro at 16, he said his father reacted like this: "He was like 'Hello? Who am I talking to? What are you gonna do? Be a doctor? You don't go to school, take the money and turn pro.' And while he was right and while I probably knew I would make that choice anyhow, I just didn't quite like the way he put it."
Agassi was quickly becoming a tennis heartthrob - his pop star good looks and unconventional outfits got plenty of attention and won him lucrative endorsement deals.
But his image, he says now, was all a façade, including his hair. It started to fall out when he was just 17. So he got a hairweave. He was terrified people would learn the truth about his trademark mane.
"What this could mean if people found out, or what does it really mean to my endorsement companies? What's it mean to my overall image? What's it mean to me? What's, you know, I was living a fraud. I mean, I was just living in a hell," he said.
He nearly found out when he finally made it to his first grand slam final at the 1990 French Open.
The night before, the unthinkable happened: his hairpiece literally fell apart in the shower and Andre and his brother frantically put it in place with a slew of bobby pins.
"First time I ever really prayed for anything as it related to a result. I was praying not for the wind but for my hair to stay on," he remembered.
"Were you afraid it was just gonna fly off?" Couric asked.
"Scared the heck out of me. I kept envisioning what this would be like if my hair just flew off and landed. Like what would I do? Would I go over and kill it or would I quickly put it back on? Do I take it home and name it? I didn't know what I was gonna do. I didn't have a plan for what I was gonna do, which is why I was trying to move less and less."
"'Cause the last shot, you just sort of stood there?" Couric asked.
"Oh yeah. When the match was over I had won," he said.
The hair had stayed on. "One of the trials and tribulations of my journey," he joked.
For most of the next two years he struggled on the court, but then came an unexpected win at Wimbledon, his first grand slam victory.
His second major win came two years later. His blistering baseline passing shots helped him capture his first U.S. Open. It was the beginning of a run of 26 consecutive victories that earned him the number one ranking in the world.
Agassi was clearly on a roll, a roll he expected to continue a year later at the 1995 U.S. Open final. His girlfriend, Brooke Shields, who had convinced him to shave his head, was there.
He lost that game to Pete Sampras.
"I hit a big wall. I lost interest. Lost desire. Lost inspiration, is what I really lost that day," he told Couric.
"Your life really went into a tailspin after that, didn't it? And it lasted quite a while," she asked.
"Yeah. I got disinterested in tennis," he said.
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