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'I feel full' Former No. 1 Courier to retire from tennis
Posted: Tuesday May 09, 2000 09:26 PM
NEW YORK (AP) -- Jim Courier, who bludgeoned the ball like a baseball slugger and often wore a cap to match, is walking away after 13 years of tournament tennis. He joined Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi and Michael Chang in dominating a decade of the men's game, and was the first of that group to win two Grand Slam tournaments and the first to be ranked No. 1. Now he's the first to retire. Courier, 29, will work as an analyst for cable networks TNT and CNN/SI at Wimbledon this summer. "The decision's been made since late January," Courier said in a telephone interview Tuesday. "It was a gradual feeling where my enthusiasm to train and prepare started waning. I was not enthusiastic when I was getting ready to play the matches. I was to the point where I was almost going to start going through the motions." Courier, from Dade City, Fla., won 23 titles -- only one since 1997 -- and earned more than $50 million in prize money and endorsements. He won the French Open in 1991 and 1992, ingratiating the fans at Roland Garros by speaking in French during the trophy ceremonies. "The first highlight for me was when I won the French Open for my first major title," Courier said. "It was a life-changing moment, going from not being known to being known, in and out of tennis." Brandishing his racket like a baseball bat -- hitting line drives with skills carried over from the sport that was his first love -- and pulling a clay-stained white hat down close to his eyes, Courier looked more like a weekend warrior than someone who would go on to be ranked No. 1 in the world for 58 weeks. He won the Australian Open in 1992 and 1993, and was one of six men in the Open era to reach the finals of all four Grand Slam events. Courier also played for U.S. teams that won the Davis Cup in 1992 and 1995. But as good as Courier was in the first half of the 1990s -- and as quick as he rose to the top -- he didn't sustain it. There were signs as early as 1993 that Courier's intensity was lacking. He was seen reading a book, Armistead Maupin's "Maybe the Moon," during changeovers in a losing effort against Andrei Medvedev at the ATP Tour World Championship in November. At another juncture, Courier turned to his coach, Jose Higueras, and said, "You know what? I was just wondering if they've signed the NAFTA agreement or not." He never reached another Grand Slam final. "I've been fighting it for seven or eight years," Courier said. "Your enthusiasm ebbs. There was a transition where tennis was my life and somewhere along the way, life became more important than the tennis." Courier's career coincided with a heyday for U.S. men's tennis, and he retires with the fourth-most career titles among current players. The three ahead of him? Sampras (62), Agassi (45) and Chang (33). Courier and Agassi learned their playing styles together at a tennis camp in Florida, before Courier got another coach. They met in the 1991 French final -- the first time since 1954 that two American men met for that title -- while Sampras topped Courier for the 1993 Wimbledon title. Agassi, the top seed at this week's Italian Open, called Courier upon learning of his retirement. Now Courier will get a chance to critique the players he once battled from the baseline. "I think my friends are shaking in their boots," Courier said, laughing. "They know I'm going to let people know if they're choking. You can't sugarcoat something if a guy isn't giving his all."
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