Jim Courier went into the 1992 French Open as the defending champion and would set up a rematch against Andre Agassi.
Courier won his first major title in Paris a year prior, before adding to his Grand Slam collection at the 1992 Australian Open.
After reaching the final at a tournament in San Francisco, Courier rose to world number one for the first time in his career.
As the top seed and defending champion at the 1992 edition of the French Open, Courier made it all the way to the semi-finals where he would play Agassi.
Jim Courier surprised by his 1992 French Open semi-final against Andre Agassi
Courier beat Agassi in the 1991 French Open final, with the former coming from two-sets-to-one down to go the distance.
In only their second meeting since that final, Courier and Agassi would go head-to-head once again.
However, this time Courier cruised to a straight sets victory, winning 6-3 6-2 6-2, to reach his second successive French Open final.
When looking back on his memories of this tournament, Courier revealed that he still finds it surprising how comfortable his match with Agassi was.
“The way that I finished the tournament in 1992 is, in my mind, still surprising because of how good Andre and Petr [Korda] were and how dangerous they were.
“I had barely scraped by Andre the year before and this time I got out on top and never let go. To beat Andre at all was an amazing thing for me. To beat him that handily in the semi of a major was surprising.”
After beating Agassi in the semi-finals, Courier would go onto play first-time Grand Slam finalist Petr Korda.
Jim Courier admits fear going into 1992 French Open final against Petr Korda
This final went similarly to Courier’s victory over Agassi, as he went onto beat Korda in straight sets to defend the French Open title.
When reliving that final, Courier admitted that he had some fears heading into the match with Korda.
“That gave me a lot of confidence and I went into the final against Korda who, in our day, was one of the very most gifted ball strikers,” said Courier. “He could beat anybody at any time but he had a lot of volatility in his game and what he didn’t have was experience in a major final at that point.
“Of course, he would go on to win an Australian Open and prove he was a major champion but he was still wondering at that point at the surface favoured me. He was a guy who on his day would have been like playing Ivanisevic.
“That’s a match I had a lot of fear and trepidation going into because I know what his upside and potential was. But I got out on top of him after a bit of a slow start. The first set was competitive but once I got that first set I started rolling. It ended up being a pretty comfortable second and third set.”
| French Open 1992 | Result |
| First Round | Courier beat Niclas Kroon (Q), 7-6(2) 6-4 6-2 |
| Second Round | Courier beat Thomas Muster, 6-1 6-4 6-4 |
| Third Round | Courier beat Alberto Mancini, 6-4 6-2 6-0 |
| Fourth Round | Courier beat Andrei Medvedev (Q), 6-1 6-4 6-2 |
| Quarter-final | Courier beat Goran Ivanisevic (8), 6-2 6-1 2-6 7-5 |
| Semi-final | Courier beat Andre Agassi (11), 6-3 6-2 6-2 |
| Final | Courier beat Petr Korda (7), 7-5 6-2 6-1 |
Korda, who has an active ATP player son, would eventually go onto win his first Grand Slam title six years later at the Australian Open.
While Courier would go onto win his fourth and final Grand Slam title at the 1993 Australian Open.
Since retiring, Courier has been USA Davis Cup captain and now works as a media broadcaster that includes interviewing players on Rod Laver Arena at the Australian Open.
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