Andre Agassi, Roland Garros 1999: Two Sets Down, and the Last Major He Was Missing

Sunday, 6 June 1999. Andre Agassi was 29 and seeded 13th. He had already won Wimbledon, the US Open and the Australian Open. Roland Garros was the one he had not won. Across the net was Andrei Medvedev, 24, ranked No. 100. Two months earlier he had been thinking about quitting the game.

Medvedev won the first two sets 6–1, 6–2. Agassi won the next three 6–4, 6–3, 6–4.

The road to the final

Nothing about the fortnight was easy. Roland-Garros's own retrospective lists the path:

• First round: Franco Squillari, in four sets.
• Second round: Arnaud Clément. Agassi was two sets to one down and came

back.

• Fourth round: Carlos Moyá, the defending champion and fourth seed, in

four sets.

• Semifinal: Dominik Hrbatý, in four sets.

By the final he had been in trouble at least once and had beaten the man who held the title.

The final

The first two sets were the worst Agassi played all tournament. At 1–6, 2–6 he was a set away from losing the final he most wanted.

Then the rain came. Roland-Garros's account says the interruption gave him time to regroup, and the match that resumed was a different one. Agassi won the third set 6–4 and the fourth 6–3. In the fifth he served it out at 6–4.

Only two men in the Open Era had come from two sets down to win a major final before him: Björn Borg in 1974 and Ivan Lendl in 1984. Agassi was the third.

Medvedev was gracious in the trophy ceremony. "I want to congratulate you from the bottom of my heart," he told the winner.

The career Grand Slam

The title made Agassi the second man in the Open Era, after Rod Laver, to win all four majors in a career. Agassi did it on three surfaces — grass, clay and hard court — and was the first to do so. With his Olympic gold, Wikipedia's page also credits him with the career Golden Slam.

"I got to say it was the best moment I had on a tennis court," Agassi said later, "as far as an accomplishment goes."

What was in the hand

The sources we read for this fortnight do not name Agassi's racquet, string or tension, and we have not supplied them from memory. Medvedev's are not recorded either. Photographs make it tempting to name a frame; the rule on this site is that a photograph is not a source.

Why it matters

The 1999 title came at 29, from a seeding of 13 — not where anyone expects a player to finish his set of majors.

For club players, the lesson of the final is narrower and more useful. The first two sets did not tell the truth about the match. A rain delay, a reset and a player who kept going were enough to turn 1–6, 2–6 into a title. Boris Becker summed up what that title meant: "Winning the career Grand Slam is always an unbelievable achievement, it's one of the most difficult things to do."

Sources

1. 1999 French Open – Men's singles — Wikipedia read 30 Oct 2026
2. Andre Agassi: 20 years since his Roland-Garros title — Roland-Garros read 30 Oct 2026