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Updated: September 1, 2009, 1:37 pm	Share    Print    Email

Christie Brinkley and Andre Agassi exchange a friendly hug. Photos by Brett Mauser

East Hampton - Since opening its doors a short while ago, the Ross School Tennis Center has hosted first-time players at one of its many clinics to high-quality rallies between competitors at the varsity level. On Sunday, they dialed it up a notch and then some, with one of the sport's all-time greats on hand to take it all in.

A high-five is in order for Alec Baldwin and Petr Korda after Baldwin chased down a short ball and puts it away.

Andre Agassi was among the star-studded crowd at The Ross School's Grand Slam tennis exhibition held at the institution's state-of-the-art field house and tennis facility. Accompanying Agassi, an eight-time Grand Slam winner, at the Ross complex, were Rennae Stubbs, a four-time Grand Slam doubles champion, 1998 Australian Open champion Petr Korda and Murphy Jensen, who with his brother Luke, won the 1993 French Open doubles title. With a great line-up of tennis, the standing-room-only audience raised more than $20,000 for Ross athletics and scholarships with a silent auction featuring many attractive tennis-related prizes.

The day began with an hour-long kids clinic hosted by Nick Bollettieri, operator of the acclaimed Bollettieri Tennis Academy in Bradenton, FL, where stars such as Agassi, Monica Seles, Pete Sampras, Boris Becker and the Williams sisters - Serena and Venus - polished their games at a young age before turning pro and taking the world by storm. Forty-eight kids, including some of the Ravens' varsity team members, picked up lessons from Bollettieri as well as former pros such as Jensen and Stubbs. Bollettieri stressed consistency and playing within oneself, insisting that players take speed off their groundstrokes if it meant keeping the ball over the net yet still within the court's bounds.

Christy Brinkley get sets for a return volley.

The visit was particularly special to Bollettieri because one of the first donations he received to provide scholarships to his academy was from Steve Ross, Time Warner creator and the late husband of Ross School founder Courtney Sale Ross. The funding allowed players like Agassi, Jim Courier, Monica Seles and many others to enroll and develop their games.

"It's kind of ironic that here I am today trying to raise money for children, so I'm hoping that you all contribute to this cause," Bollettieri told the audience. It obliged, raising approximately $20,000 for Ross athletics and scholarships in a silent auction that included a behind-the-scenes tour of the U.S. Open with Jensen, a trip to next year's French Open, a Ross tennis camp scholarship, autographed memorabilia and much more.

"The greatest coach in the history of American tennis," as Jensen put it, spoke highly off Ross' movement to build such a facility on campus for students and community members to use year-round.

"It provides [kids] with hope," said Bollettieri, who just arrived from Vermont where he and his wife Cindi host a summer fitness camp for overweight young girls. "If you have hope, everything builds. Today, many children don't have hope and here you have people who can make that hope become a reality. That's what it's all about."

Agassi was presented with a humanitarian award by Sailor Brinkley-Cook and Brittany Pape and was bestowed a lifetime membership to the Founders Circle at Ross. His crowning achievement is the construction of the Andre Agassi College Preparatory Academy, a K-12 public charter school located in, per Agassi, "the most economically challenged area in Las Vegas," in 1994. On June 12, 100 percent of its first class of students graduated and all are attending college this fall - 27 to four-year institutions and seven to two-year schools.

Musician Rufus Wainwright takes in the court-side action with friends.

"The goal of this school was to give resources, create less waste with these resources, and then give opportunities to the children that society is quickest to write off," Agassi said. We sort of treat it like a laboratory - what does this really look like if these kids had the same chance as these other children? We waited patiently, anxiously, and two-and-a-half months ago we had our first answers with our first graduating class."

Countess LuAnn de Lesseps delivers a convincing backhand.

Upon being presented with the award, Agassi then addressed the crowd of more than 200 attendees and fielded 10 questions from Ross tennis students, ranging from his upbringing to his training to what he viewed as his most cherished victory - the 1999 French Open win over Andrei Medvedev in which he came from two sets down to win the championship and complete the career Grand Slam.

From that match and the more than 1,100 professional singles duels he endured during his career came a lot of life lessons. When asked "Could you name a lesson that you learned later in your career that you wish you had discovered when you were a younger player?," Agassi had this response:

"I would say that lesson is to never believe anyone who is willing to define you and consider you a finished product when you're continuing the process," Agassi said. "There were times in my life I was judged for a lot of things, and it made me question myself, which was probably pretty good, but I've learned as I've gotten older that none of us are done growing, none of us are done changing, none of us are done evolving. The moral of the story is don't let any adults treat you like a finished product but you yourself never stop growing, stop pushing yourself, stop changing."

The intensity stepped up a notch when the pros took the court and treated the audience to booming serves and lengthy rallies. In the end, Murphy Jensen and Rennae Stubbs ousted Petr Korda and Ross pro Alejandro Tejerina. The sun finally burst through the clouds for the celebrity matches that followed as the likes of Emmy Award winner Alec Baldwin, supermodel Christie Brinkley, "Live With Regis & Kelly's" Michael Gelman, and "The Real Housewives of New York" stars Ramona Singer and Luann de Lesseps all took center stage, playing alongside Korda and another former pro, Vince Van Patten, who now hosts the Travel Channel's "World Poker Tour" series.

Former tour pros Petr Korda (left) and Murphy Jensen share a laugh.

Brinkley, a Ross School parent, said that tennis has long been an important aspect of her and her family's lifestyle, and that the Ross facility has only added to their interest.

"This is an amazing place to come together not only for members of the Ross community but also for the community at large," Brinkley said. "It's so great for the kids because tennis is such an active sport, it gets their heart rate up, and it's so much fun they don't even realize they're exercising. We needed a facility like this. It was really missing. I know it was always part of Courtney's vision, and through the generosity of the some of the Ross parents and the entire community, this gorgeous facility is here."

Ross Tennis Director Vinicius Carmo was pleased with the turnout and expects that such a gala will only help develop the school and its tennis program.

"It's great to have Andre here because he's such a supporter of helping kids, and that's what this whole place is about - to try to get kids to play tennis and give a chance to kids who cannot afford to play tennis to have a place to play."

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Andre Agassi Honored At Ross School