Columnist Dean Juipe: Agassi is city’s most visible star

Dean Juipe

Friday, Sept. 10, 1999 | 10:09 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or 259-4084.

For all of Las Vegas' highly visual performers and wealthy resort executives, the city's most charismatic personality and widely recognized star is a philanthropic athlete of seemingly unlimited mass appeal.

Very comfortable in a spotlight that could leave others uselessly anxious, Andre Agassi is seen throughout the world as definitely representative of Las Vegas and its many excesses.

He, like the city, is image conscious to an extreme. And the parallel continues: Both have had their ups and downs and both, despite occasional outward appearances, are sensitive to others' needs.

And both are currently at the top of their games, with Las Vegas in an unprecedented period of growth and Agassi basking in the limelight of New York and his position as the probable U.S. Open tennis champion.

Watching Agassi wind his way through the Open pairings has been a study not only in effective tennis, but a lesson in perseverance. Once a child prodigy, by November of 1997 Agassi had slipped to No. 141 in the men's rankings.

He really looked to be finished as a major player, preoccupied as he was with his actress wife and her apparent propensity for home cooking. While Agassi was losing his hair, he was putting on the pounds.

His tennis suffered tremendously.

Coincidentally or not, today Agassi is single and is as physically fit as any 29 year old anywhere. Not coincidentally, his tennis has never been better and he is flirting with the No. 1 ranking in the world this weekend.

Wednesday night Agassi actually thinned the stadium crowd by dominating France's Nicolas Escude in a late-night quarterfinal match that had the season-ticket holders heading home early. With top-ranked Pete Sampras out of the event with an injury, destiny appears to have thrown its weight behind his more flamboyant rival and Agassi seemingly is about to capitalize.

If he's leading a charmed life, maybe he deserves it. After all, his Andre Agassi Charities Foundation has raised $10 million in the past five years for assorted Las Vegas causes that include the Boys & Girls Clubs, Child Haven, the Cynthia Bunker Memorial Scholarship Fund and Operation School Bell. The latter provides clothes for needy children.

On Sept. 25 Agassi will add to his list of good deeds by hosting the fifth annual Grand Slam for Children, a black-tie affair at the MGM that has already banked $3.2 million in advance contributions.

Should Agassi be in attendance as the reigning U.S. Open champion, the atmosphere will be absolutely electric. Fact is, win or lose in New York he has already earned the right to feel he met or exceeded anyone's expectations as both a tennis player and as a man.

His victory in the French Open earlier this year entitled him to erase the "underachiever" reputation some critics once pinned on him despite earlier major triumphs at Wimbledon (1992), Australia (1995) and New York (1994).

A victory this weekend will only add to his credentials and contribute to his lore as a swashbuckling renegade who sometimes bucked the odds but always seemed to have an ace up his sleeve.

No one could represent Las Vegas any better.