Honored at the USTA Foundation Gala, Andre Agassi Speaks on Serves, Style—and That Mullet
Andre Agassi is regarded as one of the greatest professional tennis players of all time. He is an eight-time Grand Slam champion and an Olympic gold medalist. He’s also one of a few elite players in history to achieve a career Grand Slam (winning the US Open, French Open, Wimbledon, and Australian Open). Renowned for his aggressive baseline dominance and explosive return of serve—as well as his bold on-court fashion and glorious mullet—Agassi revolutionized tennis during his two-decade career. Off the court, he’s a longtime advocate for helping children through the Andre Agassi Foundation for Education and the Agassi Prep Academy in Las Vegas.
On Sunday evening—the first night of the 2025 US Open singles main draw—the United States Tennis Association (USTA) Foundation, which provides tennis and education programs to more than four million under-resourced youth around the country, honored Agassi for his tireless philanthropic service by bestowing him with the prestigious Serving Up Dreams Award during its 24th annual Opening Night Gala. A star-studded crowd, including Spike Lee, Tina Knowles, Vera Wang, Katie Couric, Martina Navratilova, Chris Evert, and Anna Wintour, gathered inside the exclusive President’s Suite at Arthur Ashe Stadium in Queens, New York, to toast the tennis champ. Gayle King emceed the dinner, and Alec Baldwin led an entertaining fundraising auction ahead of the evening’s thrilling first-round match: four-time US Open winner Novak Djokovic versus American teen Learner Tien. (Djokovic clinched the win in three straight sets.)
“The USTA Foundation and I, we share the same passion for making a difference in people’s lives through education and sports. But as much as I have poured myself into education, it’s given me much more. It’s like when you empty yourself, you actually get filled,” Agassi told Vogue during the gala’s cocktail hour, when asked what receiving the Serving Up Dreams Award meant to him. “So as a result, I don’t need to be celebrated for it. It’s already given me a lot.”
Agassi, dressed in a custom Rag Bone black suit, shared that he found his true purpose by focusing on helping children rather than constantly striving to win Grand Slams. He didn’t realize that until he hit a low point in his career and personal life in 1997. “I went from being No. 1 in the world and fell to 141 in the world. I felt really disconnected with my life,” he explained. “I was an unhappy person, and then I started to focus on the Foundation.” Agassi started his foundation in 1994 when he was 23 years old, but he rediscovered his passion for tennis when he fully directed his attention to others. “It gave me my reason. I would have quit tennis a lot of times, but once I took on the responsibility of helping kids who didn’t have choices. Tennis wasn’t my choice in life, and so it really resonated with me, it gave me my reason, which gave me my second part of my career, which gave me my wife [22-time Grand Slam winner Steffi Graf], and my kids,” he said. “So I’m really grateful for it.”
He returned to the top of the tennis world in September 1999, winning his second US Open title. His accomplishments on and off the court have inspired many, and so has his influential style. In the ’80s and ’90s, Agassi defied traditional tennis dress codes and brought joy to the sport with his daring ensembles and wild blond mullet. Does he miss his iconic business-in-the-front, party-in-the-back hairdo? “No, I don’t. It was a lot of wasted time spent on hair. Not anymore,” he laughed. “But, some things you don’t have a choice. I didn’t have a choice to lose my hair.”
He’s also remembered for wearing tiny acid-wash jean shorts to the 1988 US Open and, later, hot-lava-colored spandex under dark denim shorts paired with a matching lava-print top and a statement-pink headband during the 1990 French Open—looks that changed the fashion conversation around tennis. When he sees photos of his past outfits, “Sometimes I want to burn the photos and sometimes I’ll go, ‘Oh wow, I remember what I was going through when I was wearing that,’” Agassi revealed. “So I have mixed emotions about all of it. My clothes weren’t considered fashion at the time. I was just called a punk.”
And why did he choose to wear jean shorts? “For me, if it bothered the establishment, I was into it,” he said. “The clothes were always white or your shirts were always tucked in, and so, why not jean shorts? It was different and I enjoyed doing it differently at that stage in my life. It wasn’t from a healthy place, though. It was a very rebellious phase and then companies enjoyed running with it, and I enjoyed being a part of that. It was a level of rebellion and I enjoyed being anti-establishment for a while, and then I grew up.”
Agassi’s rebellion is what Y. David Scharf, the USTA Foundation’s corporate secretary, admires most about the star. “Andre had that rebel approach, but as rebels mature, they do incredible things,” Scharf said. “He didn’t do things the conventional way and as he left the game of tennis, he stayed connected with it to try to build future leaders. Him helping people’s life journey is what the USTA Foundation exactly does and what Andre is all about. His impact continues to inspire generations.”