Agassi's Grand Slam quest

Will Agassi be celebrating more victories this year?

BBC tennis correspondent Iain Carter examines Andre Agassi's chances of a tennis Grand Slam for 2001.

Andre Agassi's victory at the Ericsson Open in Miami means the 30-year-old has now won the three most important tournaments of the year so far.

His domination of the sport is assuming Tiger Woods-like proportions.

While the sporting world is bracing itself to see whether Woods can win the US Masters, which would mean he would simultaneously hold all four golf majors, it is worth considering that Agassi might just be able to match that feat in tennis.

Despite being the oldest man in the world's top 10, he already has the first Grand Slam title of the year, the Australian Open, in his pocket.

His domination was then re-affirmed with victory at the Masters Series event in Indian Wells and then again at the Ericsson Open.

Rod Laver has achieved the tennis Grand Slam

Neither of those two events are Grand Slams, but both boasted fields of the highest quality and in them Agassi simply confirmed his current mastery on hardcourts.

Now though he faces the challenge of emulating that success on clay, which would be a demanding though not insurmountable task.

Two years ago he honed his huge returning game to perfection to lift the French Open, which at the time was the one Slam he had never won.

The tears he shed on that remarkable June afternoon were those of a man who had become fully aware of his need to secure a place in tennis history.

So Grand Slam titles are his only currency and his calendar is planned to ensure he is in peak condition for those events.

That is why we are unlikely to see Agassi in action again until the Italian Open in May as he builds up to the French.

It is a longshot, but Agassi's heightened sense of his place in history could just land him the Grand Slam

  Iain Carter

If Agassi were to repeat his 1999 success and triumph at Roland Garros, he would be halfway to emulating Rod Laver - the only man to have completed a calendar Grand Slam.

The flame-haired Australian did it twice, as an amateur in 1962 and then again in the Open era in 1969.

Imagine the buzz at Wimbledon if Agassi were on course for the third leg.

Victory is not beyond the realms of possibility - he made the semi-finals last year, the final in 1999 and won it back in 1992.

Now let us fast forward to the US Open at the end of August.

Best individual sportsman?

If he needed to triumph at Flushing Meadows to complete the set, he could not ask for more conducive surroundings.

A vibrant home crowd behind him, playing on the American hardcourts upon which he has already enjoyed so much success this year.

It is a longshot, but Agassi's heightened sense of his place in history could just land him the Grand Slam.

Woods is undoubtedly the planet's outstanding individual sportsman at the moment - but tennis could provide a serious rival by the autumn.