Andre Agassi was born in Las Vegas to a sporting family. His Iranian father was an Olympic boxer and, by the time he was 3 years old, Andre was considered a tennis prodigy.

By the age of 10, Andre was beating fellow up-and-coming US players including Pete Sampras, Jim Courier and Michael Chang. Aged 13, he'd simply learned all he could from his dad. Mike shipped his son off to legendary coach Nick Bollettieri's famed tennis boot camp in Bradenton, Florida.

In 1986 he left the training camp, but retained Nick as his coach, turning pro aged just 16.

In 1992, he went to Wimbledon at the last minute after nearly deciding to skip the All England lawn event entirely and defeated Goran Ivanisevic in the finals and claiming his first major title.

In 1993 he started dating the movie star Brooke Shields and the two eventually married in California on April 19, 1997.

A return to form saw Andre win two straight Australian Open championships in 2000 and 2001. During 2001, he won 49 career singles championships and $23,502,790 in prize money. He had a record of 689 wins and 220 losses in singles matches.

Hwe and Steffi soon began dating - and two years later the couple announced they were expecting their first child. ''He's always tried to walk this balance between his life and his tennis, and here's someone that supports both,'' says Perry Rogers, Andre's manager. ''So there is this complete balance. It just funnels right down together.'' The high-profile pair wed on October 22, 2001, in a private ceremony in Las Vegas. Steffi gave birth to a baby boy, Jaden Gil, just four days later