Andre Agassi shares heartwarming picture with rarely-seen children for this special reason

Tennis ace Andre Agassihad plenty to celebrate on Monday as he marked his 54th birthday.

In honour of the occasion, the former Wimbledon champ, who was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2011, took to Instagram where he re-shared a selection of sweet throwback photos.

Among the images, he opted to share a heartwarming image of himself relaxing with his two children Jaden and Jazz. In the picture, which was originally posted by Jaden, 22, Andre is shown beaming from ear to ear next to a lake with his mini-me children clinging onto his shoulders.

Elsewhere, Andre also included a throwback image of himself teaching his daughter Jaz how to use a skateboard at an indoor skate park. Captioning her post, Jaz, 20, gushed: "Love you more than life itself."

Andre shares his two children with his wife Steffi Graf. The loved-up couple met after their respective victories at Wimbledon 1992. While Andre has since admitted he always had a soft spot for Steffi, it would be almost a decade before they fell in love.

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Indeed the duo first started dating back in 1999 shortly after Andre scooped the French Open title – a win which at the time, made him the fifth male player in tennis history to capture all four of the Grand Slam titles.

In 2001, two years on from his divorce from actress Brooke Shields, Andre exchanged vows with Stefi in a private ceremony. "We are so blessed to be married and starting this chapter of our lives," the couple said in a joint statement at the time.

"The privacy and intimacy of our ceremony was beautiful and reflective of all we value."

While Andre typically tends to keep his loved ones out of the spotlight, he has previously spoken about his children's futures and how Jaden and Jaz aren't currently showing any signs of pursuing a tennis career.

During a chat with HELLO! in 2017, Andre told us: "No, not at all… My son's into baseball and my daughter gets into a lot of different things seasonally – dance one year, one part of the year kickboxing. She's really active, but there's no pressure. It's their choice and I'm glad they didn't choose tennis."

He went on to say: "It's a tough world. I want them to have choice and ownership of their choice. I didn't have that. I learnt what I don't want to do in many cases from my father."

Elsewhere, Andre spoke about his evolving relationship with tennis. "As far as loving the game, I don't think I ever went overnight into loving the game", he explained.

"I learnt to get out of my own way and see the game for what it was and then I slowly had experiences on a tennis court that allowed me to feel grateful, and then that built and built through the latter part of my career. And now it's different. The edge has gone, I respect what it's done, it's also taken a lot, it's been hard on my body. I don't know if it was ever a switch to love. It was a learned appreciation."