Roland Garros Re-Lived 1999: Agassi At Last

The Tennis Podcast

David Law

Sports, Wimbledon, Sports & Recreation, Tennis

4.5 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 31 May 2020

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Not many people expected Andre Agassi to win the French Open, especially not in 1999, and certainly not when he fell two sets down in the final against Andrei Medvedev.

But then he produced one of the greatest comebacks of all time, recovering to beat Medvedev and complete the coveted career Grand Slam.

In this episode we talk through the events which led Agassi to that point. What had happened in his previous two French Open finals? Why did he used to skip Wimbledon and the Australian Open? And how did he get his career back on track after dropping to No.141 in the world?

We hear from Brad Gilbert, Agassi’s coach at Roland Garros in 1999, who explains why Agassi’s participation at that year’s French Open was in doubt, how he came through a tough draw, and what he said to him during the rain delay.

Andrei Medvedev, meanwhile, gives his version of events, and Chris Clarey of the New York Times tells us how Agassi’s Roland Garros title set in motion the most dominant spell of his career.

The Tennis Podcast is presented by Catherine Whitaker and David Law, featuring Matt Roberts. It is produced weekly year-round, and daily during the Grand Slam tournaments. It is crowdfunded by listeners each December.

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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hi, this is Mary and Bartoli.
0:02.0	I'm Matt Villander. This is Mary Carillo.
0:04.1	I'm Stan Ravinka. I'm Lighten Jutt. I'm Andy Murray.
0:06.8	This is Janik Noah and you're listening to Tenys Podcast.
0:21.1	We are staying in 1999 after the victory of Steffi Grafever Martin Hinges in that wonderful
0:27.7	match that we covered yesterday on Raleigh Garros relived. We're back again for the men's final,
0:32.7	which took place a day later and featured the man that would end up being the husband of Steffi Graf,
0:38.2	Andre Agassi completing the career grand slam in a final against Andre Medvede, which was a really
0:45.2	interesting and full of incident final in its own right, but really the story of Andre Agassi is
0:52.8	just one that needs to be told. It is one we are going to tell for you today here on the Tenys
0:57.9	Podcast. Catherine, you were 13 at the time, I think? 13, yes, just getting into tennis,
1:06.8	on the precipice of getting really into tennis. But you only knew Andre Agassi as a
1:13.4	shaven-headed man. Is that fair to say? No, I have a recollection of watching him win Wimbledon
1:21.5	with my family. I recall that moment being in the living room watching him win and sort of asking
1:31.2	who he was and what was interesting about it. He had the hair then, or rather he didn't have the
1:38.3	hair then, we now know more big chat later, folks. If people are in this pod for the wig chat,
1:45.9	you won't be disappointed. No, I don't think you will. Matt, what did you know of Andre Agassi?
1:51.1	Before we started to properly relive him, I guess you got the tail end of his career, did you?
1:57.5	Yes, I think Agassi was actually the first tennis player I was aware of because I had a junior
2:05.0	racket and it was a head racket and Agassi was on the cover of it. I think I thought his name
2:10.4	was pretty cool. I certainly remember his US Open final in 2005 and his epic against
2:21.6	Baghdadis in 2006. Those are my standout memories of his career. Yes, 1999 I was three, so
	...

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