Andre Agassi Wore A Wig On Court

NEWS that Andre Agassi wore a wig in the 1990 final of the French Open, when he lost in a straight set and rinse to Gomez from Ecuador.

Agassi’s wig was a superb mix of Kajoogoo cast offs mated with Frank McAvennie top knot. While not in the Phil Spector league of hair pieces - more King Charles spaniel than King Charles - Agassi’s wig made a very careful and polite nod to majesty.

And for Agassi, these were testing times:

“Then a fiasco happened. The evening before the match I stood under the shower and felt my wig suddenly fall apart. Probably I used the wrong hair rinse. I panicked and called my brother Philly into the room.

“’It’s a total disaster!” I said to him. He looked at it and said he could clamp it with hair clips. It took 20 clips. ‘Do you think it will hold?’ I asked. ‘Just don’t move so much,’ he said.

“Of course I could have played without my hairpiece, but what would all the journalists have written if they knew that all the time I was really wearing a wig?

“During the warming-up training before play I prayed. Not for victory, but that my hairpiece would not fall off. With each leap, I imagine it falling into the sand. I imagine millions of spectators move closer to their TV sets, their eyes widening and, in dozens of dialects and languages, ask how Andre Agassi’s hair has fallen from his head.”

Much of this explains Agassi’s career, such as when in 1992, at the moment of Wimbledon victory he collapsed to the ground - he did not leap into the air, for in doing so he ran the risk of arriving back on the grass a full three seconds ahead of his crowning glory.

It was a blessed relief that rain stopped play because Agassi was only one torrential downpour away from his hair shrinking on his head to a small bun.

Anorak

Posted: 30th, October 2009 | In: Key Posts, Sports Comments (3) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink