drakulie said:
In a way, Andre made my mom understand why I love tennis so much, and not that we weren't close but somehow became closer during that match. She never knew anything about tennis, until on her own watched the Wimbledon final against Goran. She was so excited to be watching him play, and knowing this is what I like to do. So I drove over to her house and we watched the final 2 sets together. I have never seen her so excited and animated. I remember she began crying when he fell to his knees. She has been following his career ever since. She was crying today too.
Andre brought out passions in everybody he inspired. Thanks Andre!!
That's a nice story ... it completely describes Agassi's appeal beyond tennis and how he drew people to the game ...
Agassi has had a huge influence on the technical aspects as well ...
The early years were full of doubt in his ability - even questioning the credibility of his power baseline game at the pro level. I remember hearing that the power game and inside out FH would always be inferior to a more front court style of play - where the better approach was to use angles/depth to come forward ... and not by forcing a short ball through power, which was too low percentage ...
Of course, the argument was evidenced by the fact that it wasn't working for Agassi ...
Same for his backswing, good shoulder turn meant the racquet went with the turn - when viewed from the front, I remember instructors telling students that, on the 2HBH takeback, the racquet head should be visible on the other side of the body ... then around and up and through ...
Agassi played a big part in changing all that ...
Now we see instructors emphasizing the extension instead of the "address," something Agassi does better than anyone ...
