Andre Agassi will forever be known as a legend when it comes to tennis and he left a sizeable stamp on the game during his playing days.
Before Roger Federer started his rivalry with Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, Agassi and Pete Sampras used to battle it out for supremacy in the world of professional tennis.
Agassi retired after a shocking realisation in 2006 but the American delivered years of devoted service to the sport and claimed eight Grand Slam singles titles.
Sampras had immense respect for Agassi and over the years the pair had a brilliant rivalry, featuring some stunning matches at the world’s top tournaments.
As with most top players these days, Agassi knew when the time was right to retire and he’s had to watch on as the Big Three blow the records set by him and Sampras out of the water.
Who Andre Agassi picked for his Mount Rushmore of tennis players
Back in 2014, Agassi was quizzed on who would make a theoretical Mount Rushmore compilation if it came to tennis players.
In an interview with the Reno Gazette Journal, he was anything but hesitant when it came to picking three of the players he’d include.
However, in 2014, there was one of the Big Three that wouldn’t have been a definite pick when it came to making the grade in the eyes of Agassi.
He said: “The top four would be, not in any particular order, Nadal, (Rod) Laver, Federer and the four is absolutely an open case.
“I would leave the face uncarved for a few more years. You could debate (Bjorn) Borg if he had played longer.
“You could debate a lot of things. I’ll leave the fourth on Mount Rushmore pure stone to be carved, maybe even carve if next year if Djokovic does what he’s still capable of doing.”
How many major titles would be on Andre Agassi’s Mount Rushmore?
Well, given he made these comments in 2014, we had better take a lot at how many there would be on there if he included Borg or Djokovic.
Clearly Federer and Nadal were a given. They amassed a number of Grand Slam victories over their career and anyone would be hard pushed not to include those two.
| Player | Australian Open | French Open | Wimbledon | US Open | Total |
| Novak Djokovic | 10 | 3 | 7 | 4 | 24 |
| Roger Federer | 6 | 1 | 8 | 5 | 20 |
| Rafael Nadal | 2 | 14 | 2 | 4 | 22 |
| Rod Laver | 3 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 11 |
| Bjorn Borg | 0 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 11 |
If Agassi was asked the same question now, surely Djokovic would be carved on the space that he suggested he’d leave back when he gave the interview.
Djokovic might be coming towards the end of his career but to still be in the top 10 of the ATP World Rankings and getting to the business end of majors at 37 is no mean feat.
This type of discussion offers everyone an opinion. Surely, however, most people associated with having a passion for tennis would agree on three of the names.
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