He suffered some injury I forget, and had a tough time getting back, and just lost his desire, and "burned out," and decided to call it quits pretty early at 27 I believe. He's now working as some stock broker or real estate agent or something like that for his parent's company?
Smart decision I guess. He played with a lot of spunk, because he had two weapons and absolutey NOTHING else...his speed and FOREHAND. Incredibly fast and scrappy player, but he had no reach at net, his first serve was basically the same as his second serve, and his backhand was really wimpy...he was really vulnerable to high kick serves to his backhand and Todd Martin took him apart with that one shot basically in the finals of one clay event one year.
Nevertheless, at his best, he was incredibly dangerous, because he could run almost anything down, played with great joy in his game and emotions, and, of course, that forehand which Agassi said is the best in the world when on and Ivanisevic called a gun.
His forehand was absolutely wicked, he's hit some of the hardest forehands I've ever seen with just the flick of a wrist it seemed. Incredible topsin and power, but more than that he was so precise with it. He just never ever seemed pressured off that side, never seemed like he could miss on that side.
I think once he lost his motivation and a bit of his speed though, that was it. He had to scrap so hard every match, that it was invetibable he would burn out early; because EVERYONE knew to kick it out wide to his backhand and to try and attack his backhand at all costs. I can't remember one player who had to run around his backhand as much as this guy to be effective...Gonzales, after all, can still occasionally BOP his backhand and has the huge serve.
So if he lost just a little bit of motivation or speed, his chances were pretty much hopeless.
Was really popular in the locker room, extroverted, and just a fun and imminently likeable guy to be around from what Johnny McEnroe said.
He was fun to watch when he was on, but he's probably the greatest example of a one-trick pony to be in the top 20 range as a player in the 90s generation. He kind of burst onto the scene in 94, but players quickly learned to concentrate on exposing his consistent but punchless backhand and to really be agressive in attacking his serve so he wouldn't get a chance to start dictating with his forehand...so he dropped down a little in subsequent years, but was still very dangerous and a legimate top 15 to 25 caliber player, just not a top 10/15 caliber player as he was initially overestimated as.
