Andre Agassi : I thought Federer was a 'bad Pete Sampras' when he first played him!

Otacon

Otacon

Hall of Fame
“I beat him the first three times we played. Once in Basel, once at the US Open and the last one was in the finals of Miami,” began Agassi.

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“In the first two cases, he was a serve and volley guy…full stop. He just served, volleyed every point and felt that was the way he would win every game. To me he was like Pete Sampras, just not as good.

“Then in Miami, I remember he beat Leyton Hewitt in the semi-finals playing from the back of the court. At the time, I was thinking, this is a mistake for him. Sure, we could all see he had a lot of talent, but for a serve volley guy to try and change his game completely and play from the back of the court was a move I didn’t think would work.

“Then I played him in the final and while I felt like I was controlling the points, he was getting better and better as the match went on. I won the first two sets 6-3 6-3 and then he came back and won the third and the fourth should have been him, but I snuck away at the end to win it.

“I remember thinking after the game; he is a better player from the back of the court and coming in he was already pretty special. You think….God forbid he becomes as good at the back of the court as he coming in because then you will have a pretty amazing player and that is kind of what we have seen from him over the last 15 years.

“Then I played him in the world championships and had two match points in that game and he just edged the deciding tie-break before we met again in the finals of that event and it was like he was a different player. He had beaten me and that seemed to give him the confidence to go to another level. He beat me 6-3 6-0 6-4 in that final and I never beat him again in the six matches I played against him after that.

“In truth, I don’t think I ever got close to beating him again. I had a couple of games against him at the US Open that were close, but he was playing at an incredible level by them and it was hard to stick with him.”

“It’s going to tough for tennis when he is gone,” added Agassi. “We will have people saying they can’t believe they missed this amazing person playing tennis at a level no one else has seen.

https://sports.yahoo.com/andre-agas...ras-first-played-201154149.html?.tsrc=fauxdal
 
icedevil0289

icedevil0289

G.O.A.T.
zagor said:
Didn't Agassi used to say Nadal's level is higher than Fed's, kinda annoying when these former pros change their opinion every month.
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a lot of these former pros are bandwagoners...don't even get me started on the biggest one looking at you jmac.

I did think this was a nice read though and despite the initial title and statement, it was very much complimentary towards fed so I aint mad.
 
zagor

zagor

Bionic Poster
icedevil0289 said:
a lot of these former pros are bandwagoners...don't even get me started on the biggest one looking at you jmac.

I did think this was a nice read though and despite the initial title and statement, it was very much complimentary towards fed so I aint mad.
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I agree, It was an interesting read on Fed's evolution as a player from Agassi's POV but I could do without the "playing at the level we have never seen" bit at the end. Why do they always have to put someone on the pedestal and then contradict themselves in the next interview based on the latest events.
 
Steve0904

Steve0904

Talk Tennis Guru
zagor said:
Didn't Agassi used to say Nadal's level is higher than Fed's, kinda annoying when these former pros change their opinion every month.
Click to expand...

Nobody actually listens to Agassi anymore do they? Did they ever? I didn't even read the OP because I know if it comes out of Agassi's mouth it's garbage.
 
D

Deleted member 743561

Guest
zagor said:
I agree, It was an interesting read on Fed's evolution as a player from Agassi's POV but I could do without the "playing at the level we have never seen" bit at the end. Why do they always have to put someone on the pedestal and then contradict themselves in the next interview based on the most recent events.
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Honestly, read that phrasing as a shrewd sidestep of acknowledging GOAThood.
 
BeatlesFan

BeatlesFan

Bionic Poster
Agassi wrote in his book and has always said Fed is the greatest player he ever faced. He'll say whatever these next two weeks because he's endlessly pushing that coffee he's an "ambassador" for.
 
Rago

Rago

Hall of Fame
zagor said:
I think JMac changes his opinion on GOAT everytime he takes a dump. The guy's ridiculous, makes Wilander look sane.
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Hang on a second. Didn't Wilander say that Djokovic at RG'16 was the highest level of tennis he'd seen on clay? o_O Mac was there with him and called him out on it.

In all honesty though, Mats was probably trolling for the lulz.
 
zagor

zagor

Bionic Poster
Steve0904 said:
Nobody actually listens to Agassi anymore do they? Did they ever? I didn't even read the OP because I know if it comes out of Agassi's mouth it's garbage.
Click to expand...

Had to read it, I'm a masochist. But yeah, Agassi's often full of it.
 
Backspin1183

Backspin1183

Talk Tennis Guru
zagor said:
Didn't Agassi used to say Nadal's level is higher than Fed's, kinda annoying when these former pros change their opinion every month.
Click to expand...

He isn't saying Fed has the highest level either. Still, it's a sincere compliment for Federer whom Agassi has seen grown as a player, from a bad Sampras to an even better player than Sampras.

Highest level in tennis is subjective anyway.
 
icedevil0289

icedevil0289

G.O.A.T.
zagor said:
I think JMac changes his opinion on GOAT everytime he takes a dump. The guy's ridiculous, makes Wilander look sane.
Click to expand...

I do think in general jmac is nadal biased, although he was on the novak train when he was dominating which is all fair and good, but i always get the feeling eh struggles a bit when talking about fed as goat
 
icedevil0289

icedevil0289

G.O.A.T.
zagor said:
I agree, It was an interesting read on Fed's evolution as a player from Agassi's POV but I could do without the "playing at the level we have never seen" bit at the end. Why do they always have to put someone on the pedestal and then contradict themselves in the next interview based on the latest events.
Click to expand...

because biased fans like myself eat it up :) lmao jk, I know what you mean, putting them on the pedestal only makes it that much easier to drag when they don't meet those standards
 
zagor

zagor

Bionic Poster
Backspin1183 said:
He isn't saying Fed has the highest level either. Still, it's a sincere compliment for Federer whom Agassi has seen grown as a player, from a bad Sampras to an even better player than Sampras.

Highest level in tennis is subjective anyway.
Click to expand...

He said "playing tennis at a level no one else has seen". That's how I interpreted it. Regardless I agree, level of play is very subjective and almost impossible to gauge.
 
zagor

zagor

Bionic Poster
icedevil0289 said:
I do think in general jmac is nadal biased, although he was on the novak train when he was dominating which is all fair and good, but i always get the feeling eh struggles a bit when talking about fed as goat
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I think sometimes people are attracted to opposities (although JMac is a lefty yoo). Kinda like Steffi Graf being a Nadal fan and Chris Evert being a Fed fan when one might expect the opposite to be true.
 
icedevil0289

icedevil0289

G.O.A.T.
Rago said:
LMAO, Novak too? When was that? o_O
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I'm pretty sure jmac like many of the commentators held novak in high regard and put him up there in the goat argument especially during 2015 when it looked like if he kept the level up he would surpass fed's record. He was definitely tooting that horn for quite some time and then well "shockingly" when novak fell off as did jmac.

I do think he leans more nadal biased overall.
 
icedevil0289

icedevil0289

G.O.A.T.
zagor said:
I think sometimes people are attracted to opposities (although JMac is a lefty yoo). Kinda like Steffi Graf being a Nadal fan and Chris Evert being a Fed fan when one might expect the opposite to be true.
Click to expand...

I didn't know Steffi was a nadal fan. tbh unlike her husband, I often don't hear to much about what she has to say except I think when serena broke her record but that is to be accepted. in general though she seems less hungry for attention.
 
icedevil0289

icedevil0289

G.O.A.T.
i wonder if when fed, nadal, Djokovic retire if they will start yapping like the current retired pros do. All three seem overall very private but you never know. I would die if any of them became commentators. Still think fed would make a good one, could see novak being a good one too atleast because of his personality.
 
zagor

zagor

Bionic Poster
icedevil0289 said:
I didn't know Steffi was a nadal fan. tbh unlike her husband, I often don't hear to much about what she has to say except I think when serena broke her record but that is to be accepted. in general though she seems less hungry for attention.
Click to expand...

Steffi does come off like a very private person while Agassi was always a bit of an attention seeker. Still, he didn't go the commentator route a la JMac and Trollander so he's still not as bad as them.
 
D

Deleted member 756486

Guest
icedevil0289 said:
i wonder if when fed, nadal, Djokovic retire if they will start yapping like the current retired pros do. All three seem overall very private. I would die if any of them became commentators. Still think fed would make a good one, could see novak being a good one too atleast because of his personality.
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Fed did a bit of mini commentary at ESPN for the Karlovic / Struff match. :p
4:29
 
icedevil0289

icedevil0289

G.O.A.T.
zagor said:
Steffi does come off like a very private person while Agassi was always a bit of an attention seeker. Still, he didn't go the commentator route a la JMac and Trollander so he's still not as bad as them.
Click to expand...

everytime jmac speaks some kind of bs, I'm like wtf is this, someone pay me millions to talk every 2 seconds about something that has nothing to do with the match.

its to the point that I can't hear the actual ball being hit because he is yapping about something
 
wangs78

wangs78

Legend
Many of these guys just want attention / to get their sound bites republished over the internet. The way to do that is to throw in some junk. The internet is a great thing for enabling the easy spread of information, but it's also a terrible thing making the spread of misinformation just as easy.
 
K

KristaK

New User
Eh, Andre is always putting his foot in this mouth. I agree though it was amazing to watch Fed grow and evolve.

Andre is the reason I started watching tennis, so I will always have some fondness for him. Watching him clay his way back to the top in the late 1990s was really emotional. His douchey image was a defense mechanism for his insecurity, I always thought. He appeared like he didn't have a thought in this head....but he had too many thoughts in his head. And I think that was part of his problem.
 
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