Roland Garros Re-Lived: Jim Courier - from Agassi’s shadow to global dominance

The Tennis Podcast

David Law

Tennis, Sports & Recreation, Wimbledon, Sports

4.5 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 27 May 2021

⏱️ 84 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When Jim Courier beat Andre Agassi in the 1991 French Open final, it wasn’t just his first Grand Slam title, it wasn’t just a win which would set him on his way to dominating the sport for the next two years, it was also a sweet moment of retribution against an old roommate from the Nick Bollettieri Academy who had been tipped for greatness ahead of him.

On this episode, with the help of Mary Carillo and Courier’s coaches at the time, Jose Higueras and Brad Stine, we tell that story.

What was life like at the Bollettieri Academy? Why was Agassi favoured over Courier? How did Higueras and Stine develop Courier’s game to turn him into a champion? What happened for Stine to confront Courier in a car park in Rome prior to Roland Garros? In what way did Stine’s one-year-old daughter play a part in helping Courier win a five-setter in round three? And how did Courier’s tactical switch during a rain delay change the course of the final?

We also discuss the narrative that Courier got to the top through hard work rather than talent, the reasons why his results fell away quite suddenly, and his life after tennis.

Plus, with this final falling right in the middle of the Lost Law Years, and playing an integral part in David’s discovery of tennis, you can expect plenty of 90s nostalgia from David.

The Tennis Podcast is presented by Catherine Whitaker and David Law, and features 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 Billie Jean King. This is Mary and Bartoli. I'm Matt Svillander. This is Mary Carillo.
0:05.3	I'm San Roenka. I'm Lighten Huat. This is Yannick Noah and you're listening to the tennis podcast.
0:21.1	Hello folks and welcome to the tennis podcast. Our second edition of 2021
0:27.9	French Open Relive, which subtitle is David Law's 90s Time Machine Tennis because for
0:34.7	this one we're going back to 1991 and the final between Jim Courier and Andrean Gassi and in
0:42.4	particular the Jim Courier story which is not oft told I don't think. So you know we're all
0:52.8	he's in our consciousness isn't he Jim Courier because he's so much a part of the fabric of tennis
0:57.9	still he's very relevant still he keeps himself relevant and yet sometimes when that's the case
1:03.3	you end up talking about the players careers less looking back but his David Law to set that
1:11.2	straight. I do feel a little bit self-indulgent with this show because I'm sure there are a lot of
1:20.4	a number of listeners who will look at that and think well do I really want to know what about
1:24.3	Jim Courier is there that much to say I mean I personally I think objectively there is anywhere.
1:29.6	I think he's got a really interesting career in arc and the people that were around him and his
1:36.2	rivals and what he achieved and everything else that we'll come onto but it is a personal
1:44.0	Odyssey for me because it was just such an important moment in my life that it that his
1:50.9	arrival at the top took place in as much as that's when I fell in love with tennis and
1:57.2	and he's not directly responsible for that but he was part of that period and yeah so when I was
2:05.1	just hanging up the washing outside in the sunshine a few moments ago I was remembering back
2:10.6	exactly 30 years to being on study leave for my exams which I would go on to fail horrendously
2:18.4	of being in the garden in the sunshine coming back in and out to watch Jim Courier against all
2:22.6	the opponents he played in that 1991 French Open and that's what made me want to work in tennis.
2:27.6	So just a very self-indulgently set the scene about where we're all at in 1991 Matt will skim over
	...

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