Agassi was arguably the best AO player since the introduction of the rebound ace in 1988. Agassi beat Sampras in the final in 1995 and the semi-final in 2000. Agassi holds an open-era record of 4 titles in Australia.
The problem Agassi has to overcome is that half of his Slams came from the Australian Open and that is attributable to his game being perfectly suited to that slow rubberized court surface.
For the first 98 years of tennis 3 of the 4 biggest events (Grand Slam events) were played on grass. Of course, the 2nd tier national championships were not open to the players from outside their nations until 1925 ... but still, in the years 1925 through 1974 the events which became known in 1933 as the Grand Slam events had 3 on grass courts and only 1 on clay.
Naturally, this suited the greatest players with the best strokes in tennis in those years because their great shots could end points on grass.
Agassi has won just 1 grass court event in his entire career (1992) and has only won 1 French Open on clay.
A valid argument could be made that Sampras might have won up to 20 Grand Slam singles titles if the Australian Open had been played on grass courts instead of the slow rubberized Rebound Ace courts.
By the same token, Sampras might have just won 2 Grand Slam events if 3 of the 4 Grand Slam events today were still played on grass.
Having said that, I think Agassi is the best Rebound Ace player in tennis history.
