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Agassi, himself an eight-time Slam champion, then outlined the reason to not place a massive load of expectations on Alcaraz.
Carlos Alcaraz (AP)
Legendary Andre Agassi said Carlos Alcaraz combines the best qualities of Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, and Rafael Nadal but cautioned the tennis world against expecting the Spaniard to repeat the incredible feats of the ‘Fab Three.’
Federer, Nadal and Djokovic have a combined tally of 66 Grand Slams and Alcaraz, 21, has so far bagged four majors.
“I’m not a genius and I don’t have a crystal ball. What I can tell you is Alcaraz defends like Novak, has power and spin like Nadal and has hands and finesse like Federer,” said Agassi during a talk session during the Marathon Mindset at the TiE Global Summit.
Agassi, himself an eight-time Slam champion, then outlined the reason to not place a massive load of expectations on Alcaraz.
“Just because he has the best of all those three doesn’t mean he can do what they did because there’re so many other parts to the game, which mean decision-making, injuries, you know, luck,” he said.
At 37, Djokovic too is closer to his retirement and Agassi said the Serbian will now find it even tougher to remain competitive in the absence of the retired Nadal and Federer.
“He’s already done so much, so long, and it’s hard to imagine longer. I think he’ll run out of the energy for it more than the capability of it, I would imagine.
“It cannot be easy, especially when the people you came to the dance with have left.”
The American explained his thoughts further.
“When Pete (Sampras) retired, it was a blow to me. It set me back a little bit. It made me have to rediscover my inspirations on some level.
“And he’s (Djokovic) lost the guys that he’s made history with. So, it’s probably emotionally going to get tougher and tougher quickly, but I would never bet against him. Bet against him at your own peril,” said Agassi.
To prolong his career, Djokovic has hired former British player Andy Murray as his coach, and Agassi remained curious about the future of their alliance.
“They’ve been fierce rivals on court, and now Murray will be coaching Djokovic. Well, in any coaching student relationship, you need trust. Trust can take time.
“I think there’s an asset to their history as competitors, but any success of a relationship is based on (9:07) complete buy-in.”
Agassi backs American players
The 54-year-old from Las Vegas said the new generation of American players have the ability to bring the country back to the top layers of the tennis world, like it was in the 80s and 90s.
“I was the first one to turn pro. I made (Michael) Chang, Pete, (Jim) Courier believe they could do it. And then Chang was the first one to win (Grand Slam), Pete believed that he could win, and made Courier believe that he could win, and then Courier said, well, I can not only win, I can be number one in the world.
“And I was saying, wait a second, what the hell about me? So we all helped each other in a lot of ways, and I think these Americans now are starting to prove to the other Americans that not only they can do it,” he detailed.
Agassi also reminisced how he clawed back from a series of setbacks in life to find a second wind in the latter half of his career.
“I hit rock bottom probably at a time when people thought I was on top of the world. And then I just spiralled. I gave up on myself. But one thing that’s good about rock bottom, you can bounce off something.
“So, I kind of recognized that, well, tennis wasn’t my choice. So, I turned my attention towards helping kids that don’t have choice or any hope. So, I forced myself to use tennis.
“I think that was an underlying inspiration and reason for me having a second chance at my career,” he signed off.
(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed – PTI)