Highlights of 1991 Roland-Garros final narrated by Jim Courier

Hi everyone, I'm Jim Currier and I'm thrilled to share some exclusive insights from my 1991 victory at Roland Garros with you. If you have any questions, go to Priceless.com and sign up for my Q&A. You never know, you just might get a Priceless response from me. Taking a walk down memory lane, this was me at 20 years old walking into the court for my first Grand Slam final against my former roommate at Tennis Academy, Andre Agassi, on a very cool, extremely breezy day in Paris. I was so nervous for this match. I'd played well that season, gotten into the top 10 with big tournament wins in Miami and Indian Wells, but never played a match of this moment. And I tried to fake like it was normal in the pictures, but I had huge amounts of butterflies going in my body. I tried to take the ball early, I remember, in the first set against Andre's serve. I was trying to beat the wind so the ball didn't blow around too much, but what I was doing was allowing him to take control of these rallies. You'll notice early in this set here how much Andre's in the center of the court, just moving me around side to side and really controlling things, and that was a bad situation for me. I needed to be making him move and try and dominate as much as possible, but he was just on fire and he would race through that first set. It felt like it was going so quickly for me. Andre would win that first set 6-3, there again, taking the ball super early and Andre just running me around. I missed this backhand and that's where the first set went. And the second set was going much the same way in the early goings. He was up 3-1 in the second set and then the rains came and that allowed me to go to the locker room, talk to my coach, Jose Higueras, and make a monumental change in strategy. Jose told me that I needed to stop taking the ball early on those returns, stand deeper, and you can see where I'm standing in this one, to get myself back into neutral in the rally and just to give him something different to think about and look at. And that changed the course of this match and in many ways the course of my life because I was able to win that second set and get into the match. And in the third set, it still wasn't going to be easy. I'm still using the same tactics but Andre tightened up his game. He didn't make as many unforced errors in this set and it was a real battle. He was able to get out in front and finish this set pretty comfortably but the match was also going fairly quickly. Still windy as you can tell. That was me expressing my disbelief at how much the ball was moving in the wind. I was comparing it to a baseball pitcher throwing knuckleballs at me where the ball is just zigzagging at you. So I had some problems still but one problem I knew I didn't have was fitness. I knew if I could stay in this match that I wasn't going to run out of gas. I just needed to do something with the shots to change the course of it because now I was down two sets to one. But I didn't panic and I stuck to my guns, stayed deep in the court on those returns and then tried to dominate and I was able to get an early break of serve. And one thing about Andre back in this era in his career, it wouldn't be the same later in his career, he could kind of let go of sets if you got up a break on him and maybe save some energy or mental or physical for a fifth set. And that's what I feel happened. I got up an early break in this set and then Andre just sort of started going for broke, started making a few more unforced errors and put me in a winning position. I would be able to hold serve and clinch this set 6-1 and have some momentum going into a fifth set. This is the end of that set. The wind is now starting to slow down a little bit. It's not quite as penal as it was and now it's just a mental and physical battle here. The conditions are starting to get a little bit better and that's when we win the fifth set. And I would take that momentum and get up an early break of serve in the fifth. He'd break me back and then this would be me serving for the match at 5-4, serving 30-15. So I pound this forehand down the line and now I'm at 40-15. It's match point and I'm trying to pretend like it's not such a big deal and I look really silly doing it by the way. I did a terrible job. But what I was trying to do was depressurize. I was trying to just relax and make sure that I didn't make a stupid mistake on this point. I wanted to ensure that he had to hit shots because he was also making some mistakes. You'll see me say just beforehand, just make him play. And that's exactly what I did right there. That's where I said it. I tried to make him play but instead of making him play I hit an ace and I fell down onto the ground in disbelief, in shock almost. My life changed at that moment. I became a Grand Slam champion and once you are one you always will be. I was able to get my hands on this beautiful, magnificent hoop and sure enough I was lucky enough to do it twice. But that was a moment in my life that I'll never forget. So thanks for letting me share that with you.