Graf and Agassi Find Love Off the Court

April 4, 2007 — -- Tennis legends Steffi Graf and Andre Agassi have won just about every tennis title, but now they've settled into their present-day titles: husband and wife and mother and father.

These two giants of tennis -- one quiet and steady, the other rambunctious with a lot to say -- made an unlikely pair that turned out to be the perfect match.

In 1988, Graf, a German-born tennis player with a fierce forehand, won all four Grand Slams and an Olympic gold medal.

During the same era, Agassi, a rebellious American, sported a funky hairdo and had a famous wife, actress Brooke Shields.

"There wasn't really a direct contact really between us," Graf said.

"She would practice from 8 to 10 in the morning and … I wouldn't wake up till noon," Agassi said. "I would count maybe twice that we were together, and once because we, we won Wimbledon the same year."

From afar, Agassi silently admired Graf's steadiness.

"You see the way she goes about her life, and you go, 'Wait a second, that's everything I wish I could do,'" he said.

After his marriage to Shields ended, Agassi gathered the courage to ask Graf to practice with him.

"I kind of was talking to my coach and … it's like, why does he want to practice with me? He's like, 'What do you think?" Graf said, laughing.

In two years' time, the prince and princess of the court married. Graf had retired at the top of her game.

"I used to watch her hit balls and say, 'You could play right now and you could go straight back to No. [1] in the world,'" Agassi said. "And she just would shake her head like, one day you'll understand."

Now, Agassi said, he does understand.

Seven years later, he followed suit and retired. Now, the couple split their time between their nonprofit work and their children, Jaden and Jaz.

Graf said having Agassi at home more often was great.

"He'll drop off, you know, one of the two at -- at the preschool and, and then we -- we switch in the afternoons," she said.