Andre Agassi

The city that usually takes was in a very giving mood at the eighth annual Andre Agassi Grand Slam for Children, which raised a record $12.3 million, easily doubling last year's total.

Andre Agassi is playing tennis again. The winner of eight Grand Slam events has been retired since 2006, but he will compete against John McEnroe, Michael Chang and Jim Courier in Friday night's Acura Champions Cup at Honda Center. Agassi, 42, earned more than $30 million in his career, racking up the major victories between 1992 (Wimbledon) and 2003 (his fourth Australian Open). Residing in Las Vegas with his wife, tennis legend Steffi Graf, and their two children, Agassi has his hand in a number of charitable endeavors, such as his Andre Agassi Foundation for Education, Athletes for Hope and a charter school in Las Vegas, along with business and public speaking interests.

Open An Autobiography Andre Agassi Alfred A. Knopf: 400 pp., $28.95

It's not the Lakers, but there will be legends playing at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Staples Center. Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi, Jim Courier and John McEnroe, who collectively won 31 major tennis titles, will play one another in the HSBC Tennis Cup presented by Cancer Treatment Centers of America. It's part of the Champions Series that will conclude at the end of the year with the top three players splitting a $1-million bonus. This stop is No. 8 on a 12-city tour that also features Jimmy Connors, Mats Wilander, Bjorn Borg, Michael Chang, Todd Martin and Ivan Lendl.

This too shall pass, and not a moment too soon for Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi. What was supposed to be a Hit for Haiti exhibition last Friday night at the Indian Wells tennis tournament turned into a Rift for Rivalry. The charity got some cash, but the legend got some lumps. It's the age of the Internet, of YouTube and Twitter. It happens, the world knows in seconds, and the mindless noise and texting begins, even if it isn't the slightest bit interesting. The tension between Sampras and Agassi was very interesting.

You think Andre Agassi is a tennis phenom at 18? What would you have thought when he was a baby, just learning to walk, tilting about the Las Vegas household with his own shaved-down racket and giving salt shakers and ashtrays two-fisted forehands through the picture window? You would have thought he was either a tennis phenom or a very bad boy is what you would have thought. Nearly 18 years later, tennis phenom seems to be the handle of choice.

Andre Agassi checked the urge to gesture with his right hand and instead allowed it to remain submerged in the soapy solution. Agassi was having a manicure, and, for the duration, he would have to rein in his need to express himself using his hands. Agassi was talking about dealing with problems, and for this he needed his hands. As exhibits. Agassi has been a lifelong nail biter and cuticle chewer. It was not unusual for every finger on his hands to bleed with his constant gnawing.

Andre Agassi is trying to find himself. Has anyone seen him lately? Actually, there will be confirmed Andre sightings beginning this week when the U.S. Open starts its two-week grind through the sunshine, the darkness, the heat, the cold, the wind, the calm and the chaos, or every single condition that suits Agassi as perfectly as hair the color of buttered socks. You usually play big tennis tournaments like the U.S. Open to settle important arguments.

It was a desperate time in American tennis. There was a void at the top. Jimmy Connors had gotten old, John McEnroe had gotten married and the rest of the world had gotten good. Then a young talent emerged almost overnight, from Las Vegas, of all places. He smoked the ball from the baseline and generated heat in the stands. There was hope in the land. But one morning, this wondrous boy awoke to the sounds of silence. His immense popularity was suddenly threatened.

Andre Agassi's rise to No. 4 in the world has been punctuated with cheers from crowds this year in places such as Stuttgart, West Germany, Indian Wells and Paris, all of it coming in acclaim of this precocious teen-ager who has been having a ball in 1988. The funny thing is that the only time people have found fault with the 18-year-old is when he up and caught one.

All-time loves Babe Didrikson and George Zaharias: Didrikson won two gold medals and a silver in track and field at the 1932 Olympics, won 41 LPGA events and is the only woman to make the cut in a PGA Tour event. Zaharias was a professional wrestler whose nickname was "The Crying Greek From Cripple Creek. " They were married from 1938 until her death in 1956. Don Drysdale and Ann Meyers: Drysdale appeared in "The Brady Bunch" and was apparently a baseball player of some sort.

This too shall pass, and not a moment too soon for Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi. What was supposed to be a Hit for Haiti exhibition last Friday night at the Indian Wells tennis tournament turned into a Rift for Rivalry. The charity got some cash, but the legend got some lumps. It's the age of the Internet, of YouTube and Twitter. It happens, the world knows in seconds, and the mindless noise and texting begins, even if it isn't the slightest bit interesting. The tension between Sampras and Agassi was very interesting.

Rafael Nadal was a courtside witness to some testiness between Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi during an exhibition match played to raise money for Haiti earthquake victims Friday night. And the friendly Spaniard, who is the defending champion at the BNP Paribas Open tennis tournament, chose to plead poor English-language skills Saturday rather than give up the two former American rivals. While neither Agassi nor Sampras responded through their representatives about how seriously Sampras might have taken Agassi's on-court suggestion that Sampras had once been a less-than-generous tipper, Nadal said Saturday, "I didn't understand nothing."

The showcase stadium was sold out Friday night. Andre Agassi hit a forehand that almost hit Pete Sampras in the back, and everyone in the stadium in the Indian Wells Tennis Garden laughed. Agassi was playing tennis in his sweatpants, but his groundstrokes were working. It wasn't exactly competitive tennis, though. This was for charity, an exhibition called "Hit for Haiti," put on by new tournament owner Larry Ellison and his company Oracle. It wouldn't have worked so well though if Agassi, Sampras, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal hadn't agreed to play.

Open An Autobiography Andre Agassi Alfred A. Knopf: 400 pp., $28.95

That he used crystal methamphetamine during the 1997 tennis season isn't the only hair-raising admission Andre Agassi makes in his new autobiography. He also reveals that the long hair he wore through much of his professional career was a wig. An early victim of male pattern baldness, Agassi said he was aghast that "every morning I would get up and find another piece of my identity on the pillow, in the wash basin, down the plughole. "I asked myself: you want to wear a toupee?

Tennis: A Sports article Aug. 30 on the men's draw at the U.S. Open said Andre Agassi won the French Open in 1998. He won it in 1999.