Shear Determination Australian Open Features No. 1 Sampras And New-Look No. 2 Agassi
Brooke Shields’ hairdresser wielded the scissors, though the way it turned out an Australian sheep-shearer might have served just as well.
After one of the most famous haircuts since Elvis joined the Army, Andre Agassi opens his assault on the No. 1 ranking in tennis. There’s a new look and a new way of looking at the game, but not a trace of regret over his lost locks.
The clipping came in New York a few days before Christmas, girlfriend Shields at his side, along with boyhood chum Perry Rogers, as the curls came tumbling down.
Three weeks later, as Agassi awaits his debut in the Australian Open starting Monday, his scalp is still barely covered with dark fuzz and a trim tuft near the front. He has a matching goatee and mustache, with sideburns spreading down to the lobes of his ears, each of which now sport big, loopy earrings.
It is the look of a pirate, or perhaps a rakish French painter of the 1920s, sans black beret. In no way does it match the image on the giant billboard near the Australian Open, Agassi’s ponytail flying as he flails at the ball. A touchup is needed with a can of White-Out.
This wasn’t the first time Agassi shaved his head. He did it at 13, then let his hair grow and grow and grow until it became the most celebrated mane in sports. So what made him cut it off now? Was it one of those silly bets he’s been making with coach Brad Gilbert, like the time Gilbert had to clip his body hair after Agassi won the U.S. Open last September? Actually, it was nothing more than a whim to change.
“I really quite honestly got tired of long hair,” Agassi said. “So I decided over the summer that after the year’s over with, I’m going to cut my hair off.
“It felt great because it was a big relief. I had no second guesses, and it wasn’t tough for me in the slightest. I just felt myself so free, like I don’t have to worry about not being able to get ready in 10 minutes. Brooke loves it.”
Going public with his new ‘do gave Agassi some surprising and welcome anonymity.
“Nobody recognized me,” he said delightedly. “You know what, if the interest in me starts and stops with my hair, then I’m glad that the interest is over. The bottom line is that long hair is not what does it. It’s personality. And my personality has been something that people have responded to.”
Agassi, 24, hasn’t decided whether he’ll keep his hair short or let it grow back, though he quipped that his new style may make him “two-hundredths of a second faster” on court.
More than speed, he’ll need all the stamina he can muster to wrest the title away from defending champion and No. 1 Pete Sampras. Agassi is No. 2, and a victory at the Australian would give him a chance to claim the top ranking for the first time in his career this spring.
“I suggest he wears a hat,” Sampras joked, offering Agassi a friendly tip about dealing with the fierce sun. “This court is good for him because it’s a pretty high-bouncing court. It really reacts to spin, and he plays with quite a bit of topspin. He can play on anything, really.”
Agassi looked sharp in an exhibition victory over two-time champion Jim Courier a few days ago, only his second match ever on the type of rubberized court - Rebound Ace - that is used in the Australian. In his first exhibition match, still jet-lagged the day after arriving and thrown off by the glaring twilight, he got blown out in straight sets by Australian Patrick Rafter.
“This surface works in my favor,” Agassi said. “It keeps the ball alive and doesn’t allow somebody to just hit you off. The heat is going to be a bigger factor for me than the courts. I really feel that in the hot weather my style of play comes in handy because I dictate the play mostly from the backcourt, so my opponents are working harder than I am.”
One possible rival in the semifinals, No. 3 Boris Becker, may be less of a threat after slightly straining a knee Friday, which caused him to pull out of a weekend exhibition match.
The women’s draw, missing No. 1 Steffi Graf, shapes up as a gimme for No. 2 Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, who would take over the top spot by winning the title. Her biggest threats are Mary Pierce, Gabriela Sabatini and Jana Novotna.
Agassi always skipped the Australian, he said, because he wanted to spend December and January with his family and friends, “to balance my life” and not think about tennis. But by passing up a Grand Slam tournament each year, he virtually gave up any chance of reaching No. 1. This time, Gilbert began pushing Agassi to play the Australian last fall, “even before I got out of the tunnel at the U.S. Open.”
“Now that I’ve gotten older, it doesn’t take me two weeks to relax,” Agassi said. “Plus the importance of tennis is growing on me. It’s not just being No. 1. It has to do with wanting to be the best player in the world every time you step on the court. That’s what it boils down to. And you definitely have to play the Grand Slams to do that.”
More than most athletes, Agassi’s long-haired, rebellious image has been the focus of high-powered advertising campaings. Nike just launched his 1995 clothing line with the unorthodox cry, “Tennis Sucks.” And the Nike billboard of Agassi in Melbourne, which overlooks St. Paul’s Cathedral, the beautiful Victorian train station and the glistening Yarra River, bears the slogan, “Where tennis balls GO before they DIE.” It’s as if it were an appeal to witness some sort of carnage on court.
“I guess ‘Tennis Sucks,’ more than anything, refers to the establishment of the game, to the traditions that don’t really allow the game to evolve in a manner in which it should,” said Agassi, who has hinted he might dump the IBM/ATP Tour to start a tour of his own. “It’s the boringness of it, all the criticism that there is. It’s like, y’know, well, ‘That sucks.’ It’s not meant to say that the sport itself does. It’s just everything that’s been tied to it does.
“The second slogan means that as soon as I make contact with them, the balls are dead.”
Agassi acknowledged that some people might find both slogans in bad taste, but said Nike was responsible for them.
Agassi’s “Image is Everything” campaign for Canon haunted him for years, making him seem superficial. Rogers, chief operations officer for Agassi Enterprises, insisted last year that Canon replace the slogan with “Express Yourself.”
“I’m sure that ‘Image is Everything’ ad will continue to haunt me,” Agassi said. “But there’s a good chance, no matter what I do, something’s going to come back to me that’s taken the wrong way. I don’t spend too much time worrying about that anymore.”
Gilbert has taken the worry out of Agassi’s tennis, teaching him strategy and invigorating him with a renewed commitment to the game since they began working together last March, shortly after Agassi recovered from a wrist injury that he feared would end his career. He still bears a jagged, purplish scar from the surgery, a reminder of how close he came to being finished with tennis.
“Without Brad’s direction I couldn’t have come this far,” Agassi said. After an up-and-down start last season, an early round loss in Washington in mid-summer left Agassi stunned.
“I was really hanging my head low, discouraged, feeling like the year was going to be a total disaster,” he said, “and Brad said, ‘Andre, keep believing, because I promise you good things are going to happen. It’ll change. You’ll see better days. Because I know the game. You’re going to be OK.’ Just that belief, I think, was the biggest thing.”
As much as Agassi credits Gilbert with helping his tennis, he gushes over his relationship with Shields. She watched him courtside at the U.S. Open, then he watched her about 20 times in “Grease” on Broadway and a few times on the show’s road tour.
“It’s the biggest asset I have,” Agassi said. “It’s a great relationship, one I’m really proud of. There are no marriage plans yet. We’re just taking things slow. What attracts me to her is that she has a heart and a mind that inspires me. She’s absolutely a beautiful human being. She inspires me. She’s the kind of person I spend every day trying to live up to.”
Not so cozy for Agassi is the memory of his bitter breakup with ex-coach Nick Bollettieri, who is now coaching Becker. What sticks in Agassi’s craw is the way Bollettieri left him after 10 years in 1993, telling a reporter about the split before telling Agassi.
“He was my coach for my entire life, and if he felt like he didn’t want to be, then I want that for him,” Agassi said. “But he just never gave me that respect, and he wanted to make sure the public knew that he left me.”
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