Born on 29 April 1970 in Las Vegas, Agassi was driven to take up tennis by his dad Mike, a former Olympic boxer for Iran who used Andre's three older siblings as guinea pigs in his quest to produce a Grand Slam champion.

When Agassi was two, he had a racket in his hand and slept with a tennis ball above his bed. "My dad was convinced if my eyes were going to move around, I may as well be looking at a ball," he said.

At 13, Agassi headed to Nick Bollettieri's academy. Bollettieri, startled by the boy's razor-sharp reactions, taught Agassi to step inside the baseline to hit his return, the shot which would become the Las Vegan's trademark.