Andre Agassi - Difficult Years

The next year was a disappointment. Agassi won only one tournament, and when he again lost the semifinals at the U.S. Open, critics began to wonder if he was just a flash in the pan. Fulfilling Tiriac's prophecy, they began to question his seriousness, calling him spoiled and overrated. As in 1988, he refused to play Wimbledon, citing among other things their refusal to let him wear his brightly colored tennis outfits.

The next few years were not much better. He did win four tournaments in 1990 and made it to the finals of the French Open, the first time he had gotten that far in a Grand Slam tournament. And at the end of the year, he won the first ever Association of Tennis Professionals World Tour Championship, beating other top-seeded players. But in 1991, he won only two tournaments and once again lost the French Open, this time to an old rival from his days at the Bollitieri Academy, Jim Courier. What made it harder was that he was poised to win toward the end of their final match, but he lost both of the final sets. Critics said Agassi would always "choke" when the pressure was on, and by early 1992, he had dropped out of the Top 10 rankings. He was suffering a loss of confidence, as he himself noted. At age 22, he worried that he might be a has-been.