Ferrero and Agassi

[Jack Romeo]

Is Juan-Carlos Ferrero the new, European version of Andre Agassi? His career seems to be following in the same path: early on, as a highly-touted youngster, there were the close-but-no-cigar results especially at the French Open; then there was the breakthrough year 2003 followed by a downright lousy 2004. A roller-coaster career so far. Fererro plays some of the flashiest baseline tennis when he's on but is one of the biggest whiners when he's off - classic Agassi!

[Max G.]

My take - not really.

There are similarities, true.

But not enough to warrant that comparison.

First off, playing styles are different. Ferrero is a claycourter, can rely on his speed and fitness. Agassi was never like that.

Agassi was way more of a shotmaker than Ferrero is now; Ferrero plays agressive baseline tennis, but IMO not the uber-risky style that Agassi did at one point. I can't judge that too well though, I know of the early Agassi only by hearsay. Have watched Ferrero though. And, of course, Agassi takes his groundstrokes WAY earlier than Ferrero...

As for the career path - he's having a different start than Agassi, I think. He had a nice progression - at RG, for example, he had two semis, a final, and then a win. His rankings followed a nice progression - not really that up and down.

...of course, this year he has plummetted - last year tired him out, plus injuries. But I don't see much of an insane roller-coaster, just one bad year.

Anyhow, that's my take on it. Maybe I'm missing something though, go ahead and enlighten me if you think I'm mistaken :-p

[mlee2]

Agassi was so hyped up and seen as revolutionary as a 16 yr old that it would take an extremely similar junior with transcendent tennis skills to match him.

[AndyC]

But in retrospect I think he has more than justified the hype. His record puts him up there with the alltime greats of the game. And more than any one person, his style of taking the ball early on the rise and standing in on the baseline has influenced the way the game has progressed.

It's a testament to the him and his talents that 18 years on at the age of 34, there is still arguably no one who betters him in taking the ball early.

[jjames]

ferraro has destroyed agassi