Back in 1987, as the newly-crowned Wimbledon champion,
I got the shock of my life when I came across a brash young American called Andre Agassi.
Andre may have been a superhero on the court, but off the court, he was very much human.
Eight Grand Slam titles, Olympic gold, number one in the world in 1995, and two years after that, 141 in the world.
And two years after that, he was back to number one.
Set with the task to unearth the real Andre Agassi,
we turn to fellow Hall of Famer, the flamboyant commentator and author, Bud Collins, to ask the all-important questions.
My name is Bud Collins. I've been as a journalist over 50 years, television, writing. Every year, there are new people added to the list of the tennis immortals.
And now, I know you're going to like this year's entrant, one of the few men who have a career Grand Slam.
Andre Agassi, it's just about time for him to be in the Hall of Fame.
Congratulations, Andre. You're in the Hall.
You've had in your career more ups and downs than an elevator operator.
I mean it just... he's there, he's wonderful, he's the greatest player of all time.
He's down here, what's he doing? He's 141 on the ATP rankings.
How did you dig yourself out from that? Why did you?
You know, I did because I needed to choose and take ownership of my life.
You know, I felt like my father chose the game for me when I was young.
I stayed with it out of fear -- fear of what this would mean to walk away from something I've just known my whole life.
But I've always had that slight disconnect with it until I was about 27 years old.
And when I was 27 years old, 141 in the world, I gave myself permission to quit.
I should say, I've quit a thousand times in my life, but I've never allowed myself to stay away.
And I said, "I'm going to choose it for myself." And that's when I started to think about the school, my academy in Las Vegas,
and I started to play tennis to change the lives of these children, and I started to find out that,
geez, this is really fulfilling me, and tennis is a reason why I can do this.
And from that day forward I started a love affair with it.
And what did Gil mean to you? Gil Reyes?
Gil's been everything to me. I call him my lifeguard, you know.
Physically, he knows the body better than anybody I've ever met.
He kept me playing until I was 36. He's been one of those influential people in my life.
My father, Gil and my wife.
How funny that the three most influential people in my life, English isn't their first language, but we found a way to communicate.
Dad, when I was five, you told me to win Wimbledon. When I was seven, you told me to win all of the four Grand Slams.
And more times than I can remember, you told me to get into the Hall of Fame.
And when I was 29, I don't know if you remember this, you told me to marry Steffi Graf.
Best order you ever gave me. So, Dad, please don't ever stop telling me what to do.
It was tough with your father, we all know that. He loved you in his way.
You loved him, I think, in... but you had to get away from him. Is that correct?
I think so, and I think he knew better than me.
I think that's why he sent me away. He saw what tennis had done and relationships with my other siblings.
He's a man that was passionate about tennis and believed tennis was the fastest road to the American dream.