Retired professional and former world number 1 player, Andre Agassi, is set to return to playing competitive tournament tennis by October this year. He will be playing in the 30-and-over Outback Champions Series event to be held at Surprise, Arizona. It seems that Agassi has one more tournament in him yet.
Agassi is the first member announced out of the eight-player field. Randy Walker, tour spokesman, announced of Agassi’s involvement on Sunday. The eight selected players will be competing for $150,000 prize money on October 8-11, 2009 to be played at the Surprise Tennis and Racquet Complex.
The players selected will have to be eligible for the event. In order to be an eligible player, he must have reached at least one final at a Grand Slam tournament, must have been ranked in the top five or played on a Davis Cup title-winning team. Agassi is more than eligible to play in the tournament as he had a record of being the ATP’s number 1 player for 101 weeks and have been in 3 Davis Cup title-winning teams.
Agassi will be turning 39 next month. He retired from tennis after playing in the 2006 US Open and walked away from the game after having accomplished a record of winning 8 major singles championships and is one of only five men to complete a career Grand Slam.
Pete Sampras and John McEnroe is said to play on the seniors tour this year as well. Agassi will also be participating in the All England Club exhibition matches on May 17 together with wife, Steffi Graf and former touring pros Tim Henman and Kim Clijsters.