Helping at home

Victoria Sun

Thursday, Feb. 8, 2001 | 10:24 a.m.

As much as Andre Agassi loves spending time in San Francisco, the tennis star and Las Vegas resident insisted Wednesday afternoon that he hasn't left his heart there.

Agassi will be buying a vacation house in the affluent Northern California suburb of Tiburon, about 30 miles north of San Francisco.

But his roots remain firmly planted in Las Vegas.

"I wouldn't go that far," Agassi responded tersely to the suggestion that the Bay Area is becoming his "pseudo-hometown." "Let's call it like it is.

"Vegas is my life. Everything is here. My friends, family, office, foundation, home."

The 30-year-old Agassi was scheduled to reaffirm his commitment to his hometown today during the groundbreaking ceremony for the Andre Agassi College Preparatory Academy. The $4.1 million charter school is being jointly funded by the Andre Agassi Charitable Foundation, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the state of Nevada.

The academy will be located at the corner of J Street and West Lake Mead Boulevard next to the Doolittle Community Center. Grades three through five will start school this fall with grades six through 12 to follow. By 2008, the school will be full.

"Starting the groundbreaking of the school, that's been a dream of ours for a while," Agassi said. "The point is to bring the level of education, as well as expectation, to these children's lives.

"We believe that if a child is expected to work hard and to learn and to go to college, then a child will not disappoint. That's the kind of approach towards it."

The curriculum of the academy will focus on technology and college preparation.

It is just the latest charitable endeavor supported by Agassi and his 6-year-old foundation. The Andre Agassi Boys and Girls Club that features tennis courts, a computer center, basketball court and other amenities is located a couple of miles from the academy.

"I've got to say that giving back, it's an ethical question, it's an issue that you have to come to terms with on the big level," Agassi said. "How and when am I going to give back?

"I believe the later you wait, the less you're capable of doing it effectively. For me, it's always been, I'm going to give back. I'm going to make a difference. The question is how. Children, to me, seem like the greatest way to spend those energies."

After a tumultuous 2000, when Agassi revealed at the U.S. Open that his mother, Betty, and sister, Tami, a former UNLV women's tennis player, were both battling breast cancer, it seems his personal and professional life are headed in the right direction.

He said Betty and Tami are getting better, which has enabled him to focus on tennis again. At the end of January, Agassi captured his seventh career Grand Slam title when he won his second consecutive Australian Open, the third of his career.

After the victory Agassi kept his promise to himself and jumped into the Yarra River, though he later wished he hadn't, he good-naturedly said, "because it was a lot dirtier than I anticipated."

This Sunday, Agassi, Pete Sampras and tennis sisters Venus and Serena Williams will be guests on the long-running smash cartoon series "The Simpsons," that airs on Fox.

"I can't honestly say I'm proud of my appearance there," Agassi said with a chuckle. "I guess, you know, when I'm standing next to Homer and Bart, I'll look a little better."

Things are looking very good for Agassi right now.

He is in fantastic shape.

He just won the Australian Open.

He is about to purchase a new house.

His school will open in the fall.

And he may soon be a father. Published reports claim Agassi's girlfriend, Steffi Graf, one of the best women's tennis players in history, is two months pregnant.

Agassi would neither confirm nor deny the rumor.

"You know, if you're interested enough to ask that question," Agassi said. "I'll leave you with the most exciting part, and that is reading it and wondering."