| Agassi's Idaho Resort |
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Page 3 of 5 There he was, buttoned up and waxing nostalgic, at the U.S. Open quarterfinal last September. Agassi and the ever-boisterous John McEnroe were volleying insights and memories in the Flushing Meadows broadcast booth; it was a scholar-athlete spectacle often more engaging than the contest between Roger Federer and Andy Roddick below. Agassi’s analytical angles were as sharp and poetic as Mac’s ever were, at the net or the umpire chair: “Federer is like a hundred-meter-sprint champion who, at 60 meters, seems to be hitting stride and powering past everyone. But really, he’s simply easing into it, while everyone else is just starting to fall back.” Agassi could have been describing his own post-tennis trajectory. The modern greats of the game—McEnroe, Becker, Sampras—will probably never be as good at retirement as Andre Agassi. Married to Graf (the winner of 22 Grand Slam titles, who now goes by Stefanie), with whom he’s had two children (Jaden Gil, six, and Jaz Elle, four), he appears to be set for a prolific second coming, with equal parts family, philanthropy, and business. “In tennis, there’s no coaching, no passing the ball,” Agassi says. “It’s problem solving at its purest. And that’s what business is: galvanizing and solving problems.” Agassi the businessman, unlike Agassi the tennis player, likes to multitask. His foundation, created in 1994, has raised more than $70 million for children in southern Nevada, including startup funding for a public charter school in Vegas. Citing his philanthropy and style, Swiss watch manufacturer Longines named him its Ambassador of Elegance last September. (Agassi hopes “Elegance is an attitude” will replace “Image is everything,” the Canon advertising slogan from the early nineties that is still, frustratingly, affixed to him.) He has also partnered with celebrity chef Michael Mina, who is developing restaurants across the U.S. There’s a spa product he’s creating in Asia, a 24-hour fitness chain in Europe, and a luxury furniture line he’s backing here in the States. Most important to him right now, however, are the boutique hotels and villas he’s designing with his equally entrepreneurial wife, through Agassi Graf Development. (“She’s very linear and focused,” Agassi says of Graf. “When we both get logged on to something, it’s scary how well we work together.”) There’s the Revolution Places development in Cacique, Costa Rica, which will have tennis courts and clubhouses modeled precisely after Wimbledon’s and Roland Garros’s, in addition to 25 luxurious villas. And then there’s his home away from Vegas, the Fairmont Tamarack, in Idaho. Both properties will facilitate “the physical, mental, and holistic enhancement” of their denizens, says Agassi—once again using the language of uplift. Rest assured that if they bomb, the motivational-speaking circuit—full of former sports stars enamored of their own voices—won’t see the rise of tennis’s Tony Robbins. Lecturing doesn’t interest Agassi. |
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