How many Majors did Andre Agassi leave on the table?

[Mr. Friscus]

In today’s tennis landscape, players are defined by the number of majors they win. It might not be 100% fair, but that’s the bottom line. As I’ve aged, I’ve seen numbers that used to be high become not so high anymore. For example.. John McEnroe having 7 majors, Andre Agassi having 8, and Pete Sampras getting to 14 used to be a lot… but not compared to Roger’s 20, Nadal’s 22, and Novak’s 24.

There can be discussion on generational differences, but my focus is Andre in this post, and let me be clear about a few things:

• Andre is my favorite player
• I’m not making any excuses for him, or taking away from any player who won in his absence.

With that being said, Andre missed a lot of majors… I mean a LOT, as in 20 majors from 1987-2006. And he missed most of them while being a top 10 to top 5 player in the world. I know some of them have context (and some are obvious), but let’s look at first the list of majors he missed, and consider possible ones he could have won had he been in the right mind and body to play at a high level.. in parantheses will be the championship match of the tourney he missed, and I’ll put in bold the tourneys I think are in play:


1987 Australian ranked #93
1988 Aussie ranked #18
1988 Wimbledon ranked #6 (#3 Edberg def. #7 Becker)
1989 Aussie ranked #3 (#2 Lendl def #9 Mecir)
1989 Wimbledon ranked #4 (#3 Becker def. #2 Edberg)
1990 Austrailian ranked #8 (#1 Lendl def #3 Edberg)
1990 Wimbledon ranked #4 (#3 Edberg def. #2 Becker)
1991 Austrailian ranked #4 (#2 Becker def.#3 Lendl
1992: Australian ranked #11 (#2 Courier def. #1 Edberg)
1993 Australian ranked #9 (#1 Courier def #2 Edberg)
1993 French ranked #7 (#10 Bruguera def. #2 Courier)
1994 Australian ranked #32 (#1 Sampras def #9 Martin)
1997 Australian ranked #12 (#1 Sampras def. Moya)
1997 French ranked #29
1997 Wimbledon ranked #31
2002 Australian ranked #5 (#16 Johansson def #9 Safin)
2004 Wimbledon ranked #9 (#1 Federer def. #2 Roddick)
2005 Wimbledon ranked #6 (#1 Federer def. #2 Roddick)
2006 Australian ranked #9 (#1 Federer def. Baghdadis
2006 French Open ranked #9


So let’s rank these:

VERY LIKELY: 2002 Australian no doubt, he had won in 2001 and then won in 2003. Neither Thomas Johansson or Marat Safin would threaten Agassi at this point in his career.

PROBABLE or POSSIBLE: One of the the 3 Wimbledons he skipped due to being a rebel and not wanting to adhere to the dress code. While neither is obvious, I think it’s quite possible one of those years he could have one, as he was either 6th or 4th in the world in those years. He would have had to go through Edberg and Becker while those were dominating. And when he finally returned to play, he won it immediately in 1992.

ALSO POSSIBLE: One of these 2: the 1989 Aussie open or the 1993 French Open.

UNLIKELY, BUT MAYBE: The 1997 Aussie Open. While Agassi was beginning his Brook Shields Descent, he and Sampras had established the rivalry (primarily in 1995) in which Agassi was able to match Pete.

So what does this all mean? Andre was a complicated dude who harmed his own career, and there’s no excuses. But if we play “what if” for a moment, based on his clearly god-given skill at the game… I think had he maintained a professional dedication to the sport, I would feel comfortable saying he could have won 11-12 majors by the end of his career instead of of just 8. Of course, there’s no way to know, and I don’t have some crazed desire to demand the acknowledgment of a what-if. But, it's fun to look back and consider.

What do you guys think?

 

[Hank Kingsley]

He won the big one.

He got to nail Das Nose.

 

[Hs0022]

He dropped to 144 in rankings because he was not focused like Pete. He had a different personality and liked being in the limelight. He played a “pusher” type of tennis that required only physical stamina and perseverance and he would play a defensive tennis all day ( male version of Arantxa Sanchez) if he could. His style of tennis was very unwatchable (speaking for myself).

From what I have heard he was balding badly and wore a wig to preserve his public image and even lost a GS final because he couldn’t focus on his game 100% and was worrying about his wig falling off. He embodied every characteristic of someone who is not genuine to himself or the fans. He understood that the game had shifted drastically after the entrance of Nadal and Federer. He should have kept focus in the years before this happened to have given himself the chance to win a few more.

 

[black francis]

Agassi was a bitch

 

[nuraman00]

I think one of the early Wimbledons, and one FO.

Maybe the 1991 AO.

I'm not giving Agassi the 2002 AO. When focused, Safin was great. Plus Safin would make two more AO Finals after that in his career.

You don't think there's another USO Agassi could have won?

Think Agassi could have won two more FOs than he did.

I'd like to hope he'd have one more win against Sampras in a major final. Sampras won too many times against him in GS Finals. It would have made the rivalry better if he could have gotten one more. The 1995 USO Finals was another disappointing loss.