Dark Side of the 90's S3 Episode 8 - Agassi & 90's Tennis Prodigies
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00:00In the 90s, professional tennis gets a shot of adrenaline from a new generation of players.
00:14Skill and style goes up, while the on-court etiquette goes down.
00:20And endorsement deals go through the roof.
00:24That helped grow the game of tennis.
00:25But as their celebrity increases, and their emotional well-being decreases, the game will
00:44cause some players everything.
00:47Stabbing Lenny was one of the most alarming episodes in tennis.
01:14For decades, tennis was a stodgy country club sport, where the color of the clothes and the
01:21players were the same. White. You could say that tennis started incredibly elitist,
01:28or exclusionary, depending on what term you want to use.
01:34And then the 90s gave us an explosion in so many different realms of the sport, all at the same
01:42time. Prodigies like Andre Agassi, Jennifer Capriati, Monica Seles, and the Williams sisters
01:54inject new life into the game, attracting bigger audiences than ever before.
02:00They'll emerge as the rock stars of tennis. But just like rock stars,
02:05some players will burn out before they have a chance to fade away.
02:10It's all different. Everyone's got a different story. And the controversial stories,
02:14the horror stories, are really about the prodigies.
02:16My name is Pete Bodo, and in the 1990s, I was a tennis journalist out there traveling the world
02:21and getting to know a lot of professional tennis players.
02:30While tennis in the 80s had its rivalries and its bad boys,
02:40players reached new levels of celebrity in the 90s,
02:43as TV begins focusing as much on their personalities as they do on their matches.
02:49In a sport like tennis, one of the things that's important is the way that we see them.
02:55We can see the temper tantrums and hear them differently.
03:02My name is Courtney Cox. I'm a former ESPN employee and current scholar,
03:07looking at all things sport as it relates to tech and culture.
03:11We can understand these athletes as personalities differently,
03:14and then this building of superstars, the up-and-coming, the Cinderella's.
03:20And who better to be labeled as Cinderella than a player with long,
03:24flowing hair named Andre Agassi?
03:27Andre Agassi is probably the most interesting personality study in tennis.
03:32Born in Las Vegas, Andre is forced into tennis as a toddler by his father, Mike,
03:37a one-time Iranian Olympic boxer turned casino ambassador for the Tropicana Hotel.
03:44Andre, how do you like tennis?
03:46Fine.
03:47Do you want to be a tennis player when you get big?
03:49Yes.
03:52According to Andre, his dad is so determined for his 12-year-old son to become a star player
03:57that he administers amphetamines to make Andre more focused during junior matches.
04:05Very few of the really successful players are people who are really forced to play.
04:09Andre Agassi is a pretty good exception to that rule.
04:13Yeah, Andre Agassi, he's a phenomenon, right?
04:17Jeff Tarango here, top hundred in the world for 13 straight years.
04:22Can you call the supervisor, please? I have a big beef.
04:24Enjoying my life in tennis, after tennis, during tennis, tennis for a lifetime.
04:29Tarango recalls playing against a pre-amphetamine Agassi on the junior circuit,
04:34including one match that Agassi writes about in his autobiography, Open.
04:40Andre Agassi versus Tarango in the ten and unders in San Diego question.
04:47Agassi accuses Tarango of cheating over whether a ball was in or out.
04:51There was a USTA umpire sitting right there in the chair,
04:55so there's no way he could say I cheated him out of the match.
04:58But his dad's in the RV, banging on it, like getting all upset and everything,
05:03and Andre's crying, and so he leaves, and he thinks I cheated him out of the match,
05:07but it actually had nothing to do with me.
05:12At 13, Andre shipped off to a tennis academy in Florida, run by Nick Bollettieri.
05:17Nick Bollettieri came into tennis literally out of the sky.
05:20He was a former paratrooper who ended up then becoming kind of a tennis teacher,
05:24and he had a string of little camps and gigs that he ultimately turned into a coaching profession
05:30because he was unrelentingly optimistic, unrelentingly promotional,
05:35including self-promotional, which rubbed people in the wrong way.
05:39Andre would not be who he was today without Nick.
05:41To me, Nick Bollettieri was the epitome of motivation.
05:46You want to hit the one, two, three, four, and then go forward.
05:50When he walked onto the court, you just felt like you were a better tennis player.
05:54You felt like you could run faster.
05:56You felt like you could do everything better.
06:00Bollettieri will also coach Grand Slam champion Boris Becker,
06:04as well as Jim Curry, who will also be coached by Nick Bollettieri.
06:07Every single player that went to Bollettieri Tennis Academy told me,
06:11when he's not on my court, I don't play half as well.
06:14Even me, who he never coached, when he would come to watch the match,
06:19I would play at a different level.
06:24But when Agassi begins working with Bollettieri,
06:26he's in complete rebellion against tennis.
06:29Sporting a mohawk, a tennis racket, and a tennis racket.
06:33He's in complete rebellion against tennis.
06:36Sporting a mohawk, experimenting with booze,
06:40and refusing to wear tennis clothes to his matches.
06:44Agassi pays the price for his defiance
06:47when he's forced to clean the Academy's communal toilets as punishment.
06:52But according to Jeff Tarango,
06:54Bollettieri has to go one step further to set the prodigy straight.
06:58Andre showed up to a tennis tournament with Levi jeans on,
07:02and they got into a bit of a spatter.
07:07And he said, I need to discipline this kid.
07:09And Nick locked him in a bus for a whole week in 100 degree weather.
07:17I guess that was OK in the early 90s.
07:21You're not going to get away with it now.
07:23But he like an epiphany in this bus.
07:25And when Andre came out of that bus, he was a different human being.
07:29He went from the rebel to be, I'm going to do whatever you say.
07:36I get it now.
07:37I think Nick Bollettieri did it right with Andre.
07:41I mean, he tortured the guy.
07:43And he showed him that, you know, you're not a talent until you're actually a talent.
07:48In 1986, 16-year-old Agassi turns pro.
07:52Nike quickly signs the tennis rebel
07:55and starts changing the culture of the sport
07:57by featuring Andre in some of their biggest ads.
08:02Andre Agassi was their poster child, literally challenging the style
08:08of the all-white country club look that was a part of tennis for decades and decades,
08:14with bright neon colors, whether it's on apparel or on shoes.
08:19I'm Tim Newcomb, and I'm a freelance journalist covering tennis gear and business.
08:24Any time that an athlete wants to push the envelope, Nike's there to do it.
08:29Just like they did back in 1984 with Andre's precursor, John McEnroe.
08:35John McEnroe had the Mac Attack shoe that he wore in the mid-'80s.
08:41Nike releases the Mac Attack a year before it launches the Air Jordan.
08:46But then tennis players have had shoes named after them long before Michael Jordan is even born.
08:51That's where it all began.
08:54I think Jordan jumped on our bandwagon as far as, like, how to sell things.
08:59And then all of a sudden, he's doing it in basketball.
09:02Using Agassi, Nike transforms their business model,
09:05selling not just sports gear, but the players who wear it.
09:08It wasn't just about tennis anymore.
09:10It was, like, about Nike.
09:12It was about Adidas.
09:13It was about everybody building a brand all of a sudden.
09:18But the players were the brand.
09:20Everything's for sale on a player's body.
09:22So I'm waiting for the day when somebody gets a tattoo, a sponsored tattoo on his forehead,
09:27to buy a certain brand of ice cream or something.
09:31Agassi's endorsement deals help him attract admirers
09:34who once had little interest in professional tennis.
09:38Did you get what you came for?
09:39Definitely.
09:40What did you come for?
09:41A look of Agassi.
09:44We like his tennis, but we also like to look at him.
09:47So what's the attraction?
09:48His hair.
09:49Oh, no.
09:50I don't like hair.
09:52What is the image of a rebel?
09:53But the marketing of Agassi also sparks outrage among the tennis media
09:57and more traditional tennis fans.
09:59Image is everything.
10:02Andre Agassi had critics.
10:03Is it style over substance?
10:05And really, in sports, generally, the only way that you're able to quiet those critics
10:11is by winning.
10:14And not just any tennis tournament,
10:16but one of the four prestigious Grand Slam titles.
10:20Until he wins one of those, he remains an easy target.
10:24To me, that whole image is everything campaign was so misinterpreted and so misused and abused
10:31against Andre that it really, really wasn't anywhere near fair.
10:36He went against everything that tennis represented,
10:39the dyeing of the hair, the earring, like George Michael.
10:42It made it interesting.
10:44I kind of enjoyed it.
10:46It was something different.
10:47People hated it, but I could appreciate it.
10:49I'm Lori McNeil, former WTA number eight in the world in singles and number three in doubles.
10:56I think Agassi brought that entertainment value that people were looking for.
11:00He was kind of bucking the tennis establishment.
11:03Agassi really was the only one that was really being different in that way.
11:08But in the 90s, Lori's focus isn't on Agassi.
11:12It's on Steffi Graf, the player to beat on the women's tour.
11:17The 1990s in women's tennis was dominated by Steffi Graf.
11:23She was the player of the decade.
11:30Lori upset Steffi twice during the decade.
11:33Once in the first round of Wimbledon.
11:36Unfortunately, I lost in the semis and I didn't win the whole tournament in Wimbledon.
11:40But it was a good run, as they say.
11:44And Lori isn't the only player gunning for Graf's number one spot.
11:49And Monica Seles, age 16, has one point from becoming the youngest
11:56champion in French Open history.
11:58In 1990, the teenager does just that, winning her first Grand Slam event.
12:04Well, I just want to thank my daddy, because he prepared me so well for this tournament.
12:08On the women's side, I would say Seles was the most impactful player back then.
12:15She was changing the game.
12:19Monica Seles was, I think, much, much better than I thought she was going to be.
12:23She was changing the game.
12:26Monica Seles was, I think, much more of a player who threw darts and had lasers.
12:31Just devilishly accurate.
12:34At the end of 1991, after winning three of the four Grand Slam women's titles,
12:39Seles bumps Graf from the number one spot.
12:44But there's one tennis fan who's willing to bump Seles off for good.
12:49Her cry of pain and terror cut through the stadium.
12:54Her attacker was quickly subdued by other spectators.
13:02In the early 90s, Agassi begins his decade-long competition with fellow American Pete Sampras.
13:09The Agassi-Sampras rivalry was a major rivalry on court.
13:13You had two Americans going at it with completely different styles and games.
13:18Completely different personalities.
13:20Sampras is cast as the boy next door, opposite Agassi's flamboyant rebel.
13:26They confront each other in the finals of the 1990 U.S. Open.
13:33Agassi, ranked fourth in the world, is the favorite to win.
13:37But number 12 Sampras beats Agassi in straight sets.
13:41Nike endorses both players and plays up their different styles.
13:45Stop right here.
13:46This wrinkles someone's tennis lights.
13:52Putting them in this commercial to reach fans on both sides of the net.
14:02Nike was able to position them both how they wanted to,
14:06Nike was able to position them both how they wanted to,
14:10to sell differing lines and styles of footwear and apparel.
14:17Sponsors like Nike also compete over a young prodigy who's moving up in the women's ranks
14:22and seems destined to become number one.
14:28I believe someday she will be the number one player in the world.
14:31Jennifer Capriati was perhaps the most gifted ball striker of all time.
14:37Like Agassi, it's Capriati's father who pushes her into tennis with his dreams
14:42of her becoming a world-class player.
14:44And it works.
14:45At the age of 11 and 12 was just beating up on people.
14:50She won big titles at a young age.
14:51I think she was only 13 when she won her first Virginia Swims title.
14:54She became, you know, a kind of a household name overnight.
14:58Just six months after turning pro,
15:01Jennifer Capriati is now the 13th-ranked women's tennis player and America's sweetheart.
15:08Even before her professional debut in March of 1990,
15:12Capriati's father has the 13-year-old signed to 5.5 million in sponsorship deals
15:17with brands like Diodora, Prince Rackets, and Oil of Olay,
15:22making her the family's main breadwinner.
15:24Capriati was the face of brands as an incredibly young teenager.
15:32She even gets a Sega Genesis video game named after her,
15:35all while reassuring the press she's enjoying every minute of it.
15:40Are you having fun?
15:41Yeah, I'm having a lot of fun.
15:43It's great.
15:44It's all worth it all.
15:48But the huge commercial success of young male and female tennis prodigies like Agassi and Capriati
15:54masks the reality that not all successful young players are treated equally.
15:59When Zena Garrison becomes number four in the world,
16:02one of her biggest challenges is securing an endorsement deal,
16:06something she still doesn't have in 1990,
16:09when she becomes the first Black woman to reach the Wimbledon Finals in 32 years.
16:15Some agents were saying she wasn't marketable.
16:17I don't know how you're not marketable.
16:19Everybody's marketable, I think.
16:21It was kind of unbelievable, but it happened.
16:28On her way to that final against Martina Navratilova,
16:31Garrison has already beaten Monica Salas and Steffi Graf,
16:35who both have multi-million dollar sponsorships
16:38covering all their training and travel expenses.
16:41And the night before you play Martina,
16:43you're thinking of the fact that you're the one that doesn't have an endorsement.
16:46But there's this demoralizing feeling you have to experience
16:51when you're dominant, you're at the top of your game,
16:53you've done everything you can do,
16:55and they still say that's not enough because you're you.
17:01It will take until the end of the decade for that to change,
17:04with the arrival of Venus and Serena Williams.
17:09Until then, the marketing stays focused on young white tennis players,
17:13helping boost their fame while attracting the paparazzi,
17:17who, in the 90s, are becoming increasingly aggressive
17:20in their coverage of all celebrities, including their personal lives.
17:28German star Steffi Graf is hounded after her father
17:31is accused of having an illegitimate baby with a model.
17:36As for the player once labeled tennis's long-haired rebel,
17:40Agassi is now dealing with allegations he's actually a no-haired rebel.
17:46Which he denies.
17:48You talked about the London tabloids being at times vicious.
17:51Did they have you like rooming with an alien?
17:53How bad did it get over there?
17:54No, they were funny, you know.
17:57I mean, the whole week started with them saying I wear my white cap
18:01because I had lost all my hair.
18:0330 years ago, we'd be like, oh yeah, he's a tennis player, he's a movie star.
18:06Now it was like, we're all stars, you know, we're both stars.
18:09You know, I'm a star in tennis, you're a star in Hollywood.
18:11Let's get together.
18:12And that's just what Agassi and Barbra Streisand do in 1992.
18:17Their May-December romance, with Babs being 28 years his senior, makes headlines.
18:24But it also overshadows Andre finally winning his first Grand Slam title at Wimbledon.
18:32The on-court behavior of some players also draws negative attention
18:36from both the press and spectators.
18:38For Monika Sellis, it's her trademark grunting with every ball she hits.
18:48She's not doing it on purpose, but she can stop it on purpose, you know.
18:52I've been practicing next to her and she does not make any noises when she's practicing.
18:59In some parts of the match, I was successful, in some parts I was not.
19:03But I do hope that next year when I come back here, I won't make the same mistakes.
19:09And I'm just starting, becoming.
19:17But one unhinged spectator becomes fixated on Sellis
19:20after she replaces Defby Graff as the number one player in the world.
19:29And on April 30, 1993, his obsession will become global news and forever change the sport.
19:38is when Monica Sellis was stabbed during a match in Hamburg.
19:46She stood frozen for a moment, feeling her back, not believing what had happened.
19:50Then medical personnel rushed to help her.
19:52A deranged fan, Gunther Parcher, a fan of Steffi Graf, jumped out of the stands, ran
19:58up on a changeover while Monica was sitting down, and stabbed her in the back with a serrated
20:05knife.
20:06Her opponent, Magdalena Maleva, watched helplessly.
20:09Finally, officials wheeled Ms. Sellis off to the hospital.
20:13Doctors are keeping her there overnight for observation.
20:17When Monica Sellis was stabbed, it was unbelievable.
20:22I think everybody felt vulnerable.
20:26Everybody realized, oh my God, this could happen to any of us.
20:31Despite making a complete physical recovery, Sellis sinks into depression and develops
20:36an eating disorder that takes her off the circuit for two years, costing her the number
20:41one spot.
20:45And her attacker?
20:46He receives a suspended sentence and never spends a day in prison.
20:51It was one of the most alarming and unpleasant and kind of sad episodes in tennis because
20:57it really had a career transforming effect on Monica Sellis.
21:01And therefore, on everybody else because, of course, everybody else is the people she
21:05played.
21:06So suddenly a lot of people winning tournaments are getting foreign tournaments because Monica
21:09Sellis is not on board.
21:12The assault on Monica Sellis happens just ten days after an equally disturbing attack
21:17on another female tennis prodigy.
21:20While the Sellis incident created shockwaves around the world, it wasn't really the first
21:24incident of violence against women.
21:26Just a week before Sellis was stabbed, you had Jennifer Rhodes, a young girl, promising
21:30young tennis player, you know, not on a pro tour yet, but, you know, I believe she was
21:34a college player and she had a promising career.
21:39Jennifer had just finished taking private lessons at an elite tennis academy in New
21:42York City when her coach becomes sexually obsessed with her.
21:47A fellow named Gary Walensky, who essentially people remember, and I frankly remember him
21:54because I used to play at those tennis courts, he'd be going around in his roller skates
21:58and he was coaching Jennifer Rhodes and his intention was to spear her off to a cabin
22:04he had somewhere upstate New York that was filled with all kinds of sex toys and bondage
22:09implements and things like that.
22:14So he had planned presumably to lock her up in that cabin and do whatever he was going
22:18to do.
22:20And this pornographic video found inside may have been the blueprint for the obsessed man's
22:24desire.
22:25The title bears the name of his victim, Jennifer.
22:29Heroically, Jennifer manages to call for help, forcing her former coach to flee the scene.
22:35And he ended up driving off in a rental car and putting a bullet through his head.
22:40The attempted abduction of Jennifer Rhodes and the stabbing of Monica Sellis may seem
22:44like two unrelated events chronicled by the news media, but Pete Bodo thinks they both
22:50point to an unsettling 90s reality.
22:52What it did underscore was that, you know, in some ways it was open season on women tennis
22:57players in that area.
22:59Women athletes were much more easily manipulated at that time and they were much more at the
23:05mercy of A, either parents, B, coaches.
23:09There were any number of stories and still are, unfortunately, about inappropriate relationships
23:14between coaches and students.
23:17The mistreatment of female tennis players in the 90s remains one of tennis's dirty
23:21little secrets, one that still plagues women's tennis to this day.
23:27But one story that doesn't go unnoticed is the downward spiral of America's sweetheart,
23:32Jennifer Capriati.
23:33Now, Jennifer Capriati's arrest on drug charges has brought a dark side of her life to light.
23:38The former tennis champ was arrested yesterday at a Coral Gables motel.
23:42She couldn't stop being Jennifer Capriati.
23:52At the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, Jennifer Capriati upset Steffi Graf in the finals to
24:00win gold for the U.S.
24:02There it is!
24:04Jennifer Capriati!
24:06Still only 15, she's already called one of the hardest working players on the circuit.
24:12She was the epitome of someone who could push herself farther than anybody else could push
24:17herself.
24:18She didn't have an off switch.
24:21She couldn't stop.
24:24She had parental pressure.
24:26She had contractual pressure.
24:27If she wanted to, say, take a month off, there was somebody to say, look, you can't do that.
24:31You're committed to playing here, there, and everywhere.
24:33You've also got your sponsor deal.
24:36But like Andre Agassi early in his career, Capriati has yet to win a Grand Slam title,
24:41despite being ranked sixth in the world.
24:45So when she's knocked out of the first round of the 1993 U.S. Open by 37th ranked Leila
24:50Mizuki, the media starts questioning whether she has what it takes to be a true champion.
24:56While Jennifer rolls over lower ranked players, she has yet to beat any of the top five women.
25:01You're 14, 15.
25:03You're facing media.
25:04I mean, adults can't sometimes handle the media.
25:08And Jennifer came here with a teenager's mix of awe and utter confidence.
25:13She was getting to the semis, but wanted to know when she was going to win.
25:16And I guess in some way, she internalized that as pressure and maybe everyone around
25:22her not having the patience and everyone wanted it so soon.
25:27So eventually, she just took a break.
25:31She stopped playing.
25:32What does it mean to play here at Wimbledon?
25:35It's always been in my dream to play here.
25:37And then unfortunately, you know, things began to catch up with her.
25:40She started to get into her teenage years and suddenly she seemed to really get a little
25:45bit rebellious.
25:48In May of 1994, eight months after taking a break from tennis, Capriati is arrested
25:53for drug possession at a motel just outside of Miami.
25:59One time tennis prodigy Jennifer Capriati's career is on a downward spiral.
26:04First, she was arrested on drug charges.
26:06Now she's lost a key endorsement and has reportedly entered a drug treatment clinic.
26:11Despite the drug being marijuana, the media breathlessly reports on Capriati's downfall.
26:18At the age of 13, Jennifer Capriati exploded onto the world stage with her booming smile
26:23and charming groundstrokes, but somewhere something went wrong.
26:28And start looking for someone to blame for what they see as a good girl gone bad.
26:33There is plenty of finger pointing over whether she was forced into big time tennis too early
26:37by her father.
26:38As any father and any mother, they teach their children the best they can be.
26:44I did not see anything abusive other than just yelling and screaming and like, move
26:51your derriere and all that stuff.
26:54She never told me about any kind of abuse, but she was pushed harder than almost any
27:01human being could be pushed.
27:03That's for sure.
27:07Capriati becomes a case study in burnout, and her story will provide the backdrop for
27:13judging how all tennis dads treat their aspiring children.
27:18What do you feel inside in your own court?
27:21I feel good.
27:22I feel good.
27:23But Richard Williams is teaching his daughters, Venus and Serena, a different approach to
27:28tennis, far from any private country club courts.
27:32As Venus and Serena are coming up in the 90s, all the media coverage around them starts
27:36by talking about them being from Compton.
27:43For most of America in the 90s, Compton conjures images of the LA riots and movies like Boys
27:49in the Hood.
27:53We have Venus and Serena coming up in a space that there aren't a lot of resources or public
27:57support for them.
27:59And despite that, their father, their family support them in a way that get them to a point
28:04where they can compete on a national and international scale.
28:10Their background being so anti-tennis establishment and having come from the Compton public courts
28:18into two of the best tennis players to ever live is a story that resonates with people
28:26outside of tennis.
28:29Initially coached by their dad, the Williams sisters steamroll the junior circuit.
28:35Serena is number one in the under 10, and then we have Venus who hasn't even lost a
28:39single match, and she's number one as an 11-year-old.
28:45Richard does enroll them in a Florida tennis academy, but then forbids them from continuing
28:49on the junior circuit.
28:51He pulls them out and says, I want them to have an education.
28:57Before they go professional, he says, I don't want you to think that sports are your way
29:00out.
29:02Richard holds them back from turning pro until he thinks they're mentally ready to handle
29:06the pressure.
29:07For Venus, the older sister, that moment comes in October of 1994 when she debuts her talent
29:14at the Bank of the West Classic.
29:16Returning to your native California tonight to play her first ever professional match,
29:22Venus Williams.
29:24The first time I met Venus and Serena, they were 10 and 12 years old.
29:29I hit with Venus and Serena, and you know they were something special.
29:33You can see it young, they have that from the beginning.
29:38As for the media, they seem to fear that Venus and Serena will each become the next Jennifer
29:43Capriati.
29:44And in interviews, they start fishing for signs of future distress.
29:48Do you think you can beat her?
29:50I know I can beat her.
29:52You know you can beat her.
29:55Very confident.
29:56But when journalist John McKenzie.
29:57I'm very confident.
29:58And you say it so easily.
30:00Presses young Venus for being confident.
30:02Why?
30:03Her father, Richard, comes to her defense.
30:05Because I believe her.
30:06You don't mind.
30:07And let me tell you why.
30:08What she has said.
30:09She said it with so much confidence the first time.
30:10But if you keep going on and on.
30:11Listen, we can't keep interrupting.
30:12I mean, if you want.
30:13You've got to understand that you're dealing with an image of a 14-year-old child.
30:14There's this interesting way that he's seen as a tyrant.
30:25He's interrupting.
30:26He's unprofessional.
30:27He doesn't understand the decorum.
30:28She answered it with a lot of confidence.
30:29Leave that alone.
30:30This idea of protecting his daughter in that moment is what I remember the most.
30:38Those protective instincts of Richard Williams is something Andre may have missed out on
30:43as a child.
30:44But now 25, Agassi appears to be self-possessed and handling the media spotlight just fine.
30:54He's now dating actress Brooke Shields.
30:57And after winning his second Grand Slam title at the 1994 U.S. Open, Agassi is treated the
31:02same as any show business celebrity.
31:04Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome back the hunkiest tennis player ever, Andre Agassi.
31:10Andre.
31:12But under the media spotlight, it's harder to hide from those tabloid rumors that he's
31:17losing his hair, especially when they're true.
31:23His signature mane of fleecy hair is partly a weave.
31:28Agassi's been going bald since he was a teenager, and it's Brooke Shields who finally convinces
31:33him to embrace it by buzzing off what he has left.
31:48To the public, Agassi is living a sparkling life.
31:52Going into 1995, he's got a glossy girlfriend, a polished scalp, and a shiny number two in
31:58the world tennis rankings.
32:02But in the shadows, Andre's hiding a secret much darker than a synthetic hairpiece.
32:08And it's about to come to light.
32:10I think he was always trying to stay ahead of the game and ahead of the curve.
32:14I think he just went too far.
32:16No, no, Celis looks like this is all coming back to her.
32:23In 1995, two years after her stabbing, Monica Celis makes a courageous return to tennis,
32:29winning the Canadian Open.
32:34Months later, she proves it's no fluke by capturing her fourth Australian Open.
32:43Jeff Tarango was also making headlines during this time, but for a less celebratory reason.
32:49In 1995 at Wimbledon, there was an interesting incident involving Jeff Tarango.
32:55Tennis player Jeff Tarango stormed off the court at Wimbledon.
32:59The American is upset with what he calls corrupt officiating.
33:02Yesterday, Tarango became, it is believed, the first player in the Open era to default
33:07himself from a grand slam, storming off the court after accusing chair umpire of being
33:12corrupt.
33:131995, I'm playing against Steffi Graf's boyfriend, you know, Alexander Moran's in the third round.
33:26I keep acing the guy out wide and they keep calling it out.
33:29Can you call the supervisor, please?
33:30I have a big beef.
33:32When Jeff argues the call with umpire Bruno Rabieux, the crowd at Wimbledon turns against
33:37him.
33:38They were screaming so loud that I literally couldn't hit the search.
33:43So I turned around to them and I said, oh, shut up.
33:47Congratulations, horrible obscenity, one English return.
33:51And he got a code violation for that.
33:53No, I'm not playing, no way.
33:55But then Jeff takes it one step further.
33:58You are the most corrupt official in the game and you can't do that.
34:02I'm just like, you know, you're the most corrupt official on the planet.
34:06For calling him corrupt, the umpire deducts one game from Jeff's score.
34:10This is very serious.
34:12And he doesn't take it well.
34:13Code violation.
34:14No way!
34:15That's it!
34:16I can do two things.
34:22I can grab him by his tie and smash him down onto the net post.
34:27Or I could just take the better side of life and just walk off the court right now.
34:32As he exits, his wife, who had been watching from the stands, decides it's time for her
34:36to come to her husband's defense.
34:39Meanwhile, Madame Tarango, lovely French woman, you know, gets up out of her place
34:45court side, walks over when Rabieux comes down from the chair.
34:48She whacks him across the face with a, you know, classic-like French slap.
34:58The slap at Wimbledon.
35:01I heard that it happened and I know that my wife said it happened.
35:06And the chair umpire, I don't think he ever said it happened.
35:12It's a gray area to me, so I'm not going to go on the record about the slap.
35:17For his behavior at Wimbledon, Tarango gets fined $20,000 by the Tennis Association.
35:22Cha-ching.
35:23Cha-ching.
35:24Two years later, in 1997, Andre Agassi will face significantly less repercussions when
35:30a routine drug test comes back positive for a drug not normally ingested by professional
35:36athletes, crystal meth.
35:41Agassi denies knowingly taking the drug and blames his assistant for spiking his energy
35:46drink, until a decade later when he finally tells the truth in his memoir.
35:52Going through Agassi's book, then you come to the point where he actually experiments
35:55with meth while he's basically a player.
36:02I think in that time when he says he was on meth, I think he was always trying to stay
36:06ahead of the game and ahead of the curve.
36:09I think he just went too far.
36:12But not everyone thinks he was taking crystal meth as a performance enhancer.
36:17Andre's use of meth, in a sense, is not shocking or surprising because, look, he was obviously
36:22in rebellion against his sport for much of the time.
36:30When do people turn to drugs?
36:31Well, when they're confused or unhappy or depressed or whatever.
36:34I think that probably had a fair amount to do with Andre.
36:37These hands, these miracle, magical, life-giving hands.
36:41The drugs seem to make him erratic.
36:44Maybe even lick one?
36:47On the set of the sitcom Friends, where his girlfriend Brooke Shields is guest-starring,
36:56he gets irate watching a scene that he thinks is too sexual.
37:01He storms off and drives back to his home in Las Vegas alone, where he destroys most
37:14of his tennis trophies.
37:23Despite incidents like this, Andre hides his addiction from Brooke, and they tie the knot
37:28in a small ceremony in April of 97.
37:32I don't think it's like he was running down the street looking for meth because, you know,
37:37he had an issue.
37:38I think he was, like, trying to make himself a better tennis player, and it wasn't happening.
37:43And he was looking for something.
37:45He made a mistake.
37:47He made a few mistakes.
37:50If he took the drug to improve his game, it clearly doesn't work.
37:55Within a year, Agassi falls from the top five to 141st in the world rankings.
38:04Like the struggles of Capriati and Celis, Agassi's downward spiral highlights the pressures
38:09facing star players in a decade when little attention is being paid to mental health.
38:16I think in the 90s, mental health, it was kind of like a taboo to really say that you
38:20were having any kind of problems.
38:23Well, people just didn't talk about it because they maybe thought it was a sign of weakness.
38:32I think sports psychology started becoming big in the 90s, but nobody was thinking about
38:37it as mental health.
38:39They were thinking about it as, how can I be better than that other person?
38:42While both Agassi and Capriati's troubles take them down, neither is taken out.
38:47They're both about to shock the world of tennis with what they do next.
38:51And as they say, it's not how you fall, it's how you get back up.
38:58As the 90s wind down, Andre Agassi surprises everyone in his sport by doing the unexpected.
39:05He makes a comeback.
39:07I think Andre showed a lot of character in how he rebounded from this very confusing,
39:11I think, period in his life.
39:13I think it made an impact on a lot of people, and you realize we're all vulnerable.
39:17If Andre's the highest paid player and he's having those kind of issues, then it's okay
39:21for us to have some issues.
39:24Over 12 months, Agassi battles his way from 141st in the world back into the top 10.
39:33By summer of 1999, his two-year marriage to Brooke Shields is over.
39:38But off the drugs and on a new fitness routine, Agassi finishes the year as the number one
39:44men's professional tennis player in the world.
39:50I think he kind of came to terms with tennis, and he came to value and appreciate his profession
39:55and his talent.
39:58At the dawn of Agassi's rebirth, Steffi Graf, just 30 years old, announces her retirement
40:04mere months after winning her 22nd Grand Slam title at the French Open.
40:11Steffi and Agassi start dating that year.
40:16When she retires, that leaves a void.
40:19That leaves an opening.
40:22One Jennifer Capriati is surprisingly ready to fill.
40:26In 2001, 11 years after her promising debut, she enters the Australian Open as the 12th
40:33seed, beats Monica Seles to enter the semifinals, and then defeats Martina Hingis to win her
40:38first Grand Slam tournament.
40:41By the end of the year, Capriati is the number one female player in the world.
40:47She played a perfect match.
40:50She'd won the Australian Open.
40:51That was a very heartwarming story.
40:53And then, of course, she had the biggest story of all, really, was the Williams sisters'
40:57rapid development and emergence as Grand Slam champions.
41:01To see where we come from out of the worst ghetto, to be here at the finest club in the
41:06world.
41:08Starting in 1999, the Williams sisters begin dominating the sport's top events.
41:13It will quickly become Serena versus Venus in most of these major tournaments.
41:21Those were the two that were really just taking over the sport of tennis.
41:27Unlike Zina Garrison back in 1990, the Williams sisters have no trouble landing sponsors,
41:33including Venus' five-year, $40 million endorsement deal with Reebok.
41:38The biggest for any female athlete in history.
41:43When Venus Williams signed her deal with Reebok, it was huge in the landscape of female sports.
41:51Still, to this day, the highest paid female athletes in terms of endorsements are tennis
41:59players.
42:02The Williams sisters profoundly changed the demographic of who watches and plays tennis,
42:08attracting people of color to a sport historically dominated by affluent white people.
42:19People that never would have watched tennis started watching tennis coming to tennis tournaments.
42:27They reached an audience that tennis had to reach.
42:33Televised tennis now reaches more than a billion people globally.
42:37And at the 2018 U.S. Open, Serena's final match against Naomi Osaka drew in 50 percent
42:43more television viewers than the men's final the following day.
42:50You can't overestimate how big an impact Venus and Serena and their story had on changing
42:56things.
42:58Much of the diversity of talent on the tennis circuit today can be directly attributed to
43:03the Williams sisters.
43:05But there's also the trailblazers of the 90s.
43:08People like Zena Garrison, Capriati, Sellis, and Agassi, who all left their marks on the
43:16game.
43:17It doesn't just begin with Venus and Serena.
43:21We're all standing on the shoulders of other people that have come before us.
43:24I think that the stars of the past, they have made a space to carve out for the next
43:29generation.
43:30And so it's not just Venus and Serena.
43:32Now we can have five of them, hopefully 10, 15 of them.
43:37Any time that you have a player that can push back against an establishment, then that creates
43:44more room for somebody to come in behind them.
43:46That's what's great about tennis, that every era is going to show something better.
43:51The 90s made tennis happen for the future.