“I couldn’t say no to an opportunity to play against some great champions, my peers, and guys I’ve played with since I was 12,” said Jim Courier, in town this weekend for the HSBC Tennis Cup, a part of the 2011 Champions Series, a five-week, 12-city tennis tour. DC’s stop included Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi, and Michael Chang as well as Courier.
“The Champion Series is perfect… because we are able to come into a high impact one-night-only event and touch a lot of tennis fans. That’s an event that’s good for tennis!”
What was also good for him was seeing old friends – and since he signed on to the tour, Courier had been looking forward to playing Agassi. “Andre and I have an interesting history… In High School, we were roommates at tennis academy, so we have a healthy rivalry and huge respect.”
But though their match included both antics and aggression, with Courier mimicking Agassi before each serve and even surrendering his racket at one point to a ballgirl to make a point, in the end, it was a Chang/Courier match that shook the stands at the Verizon Center.
Taken down by Chang in the final round of play, Courier nonetheless got a touch political when he suggested what he might have done with the winnings: “Pay some taxes… because it seems like [our national deficit] needs people to do more of that these days.”
