Even a multiple Grand Slam champion can be mistaken when it comes to assessing the potential of young players. The latest example: Andre Agassi in the case of Pete Sampras.
Andre Agassi has a lot of time at the moment for himself and his family. The cooperation with Novak Djokovic still lacks a certain continuity, after the premiere in Roland Garros in 2017 (a defeat in the quarter-finals against Dominic Thiem) followed the injury-related outbreak in Wimbledon against Tomas Berdych – and a longer creative break, which only ended at the Australian Open earlier this year. There, however, Djokovic had to admit defeat to South Korean Hyeon Chung.
However, the 12-time Serbian Major Serbian champion impressed his new super coach, as Agassi explained to the portal tennis365:”I’ve watched Novak up close on sand and the way he’s been covering the field is simply great,” said Agassi,”The discipline has evolved incredibly since his active days, and the spin has become a decisive factor, the passing balls are getting better and better. And what was a great blow in my day is the norm these days.”
The time of the Big Four is slowly coming to an end, however, and the next generation has already positioned itself. However, Andre Agassi is not sure who would be the most likely to succeed Federer and Co. Nick Kyrgios has more talent than any other player in the world of tennis – but how much money would you put on him?”
Alexander Zverev already has a good playground, he’s focused and extremely professional.”But in the psyche, there’s a big difference whether you’re the best or only on your way there.”
The husband of Steffi Graf freely admits that Andre Agassi can also be wrong about the talent evaluation:”When I think of Pete Sampras, I watched him in training, he was 17 years old. And I hadn’t seen him since he played with the 12 year olds and younger.”
He, Agassi, had just been part of the absolute world class and would have taken a closer look at Sampras,”I thought he would never achieve anything. I thought he can’t play backhand, he looks so lazy and unconscious during training… And everyone knows what Pete has achieved” 14 Grand Slam successes – six more than Andre Agassi.