Andre Agassi Agassi's father, (an Iranian) Emmanuel "Mike" Agassian (who represented Iran in boxing at the 1948 and 1952 Olympic Games before emigrating to the United States), was intent on having a child win all four tennis Grand Slams. He called Agassi's two older siblings "guinea pigs" in the development of his coaching techniques. He honed Andre's eye-coordination when he was an infant by hanging tennis balls above his crib. He gave Agassi paddles and balloons when he was still in a high chair. When Agassi started playing tennis, his ball collection filled 60 garbage cans with 300 balls per can, and Agassi would hit 3,000-5,000 balls every day. When Andre was five years old, he was already practicing with pros such as Jimmy Connors and Roscoe Tanner.
Mike Agassi learned tennis by watching tapes of champions. Mike Agassi took a very systematic approach to the physics and psychology of tennis, and still remains active in the sport. (More information can be found in Mike Agassi's book, The Agassi Story.)
At age of 14, Andre was shipped off to teaching guru Nick Bollettieri's Tennis Academy in Florida. He turned professional when he was 16.
