Andre Agassi’s autobiography Open is a must-read. It details the dizzying highs and terrifying lows experienced by one of the modern era’s most iconic tennis players.
I say read, I actually listened to it as an audiobook while training for a half-marathon, and it was just as good. But I now realised it could have been 100 times better: because it wasn’t read by Agassi himself.
The 55-year-old from Las Vegas, Nevada returned to the BBC airwaves at Wimbledon on Friday to commentate on Carlos Alcaraz vs Taylor Fritz, a pleasant surprise given Agassi was not named in their pre-tournament line-up.
It suggests he arrived in SW19 for finals weekend and a deal was quickly done to get him into a commentary booth – and it was easy to remember why.
Agassi’s accent is hard to place. American, sure, but beyond that and a flavour of Californian cool, it’s difficult to trace.
But it is not the accent that draws you in, it is the texture to Agassi’s voice. There is a hint of smoke, a trace of gravel and a satisfying timbre to his voice that makes you think he’d make reading out the phone book compelling.
Yet he is also informal enough that if you close your eyes and it suddenly feels like you’re sitting with him on the sofa in a marble-floored mansion mansion, a cold bottle of beer in your hand, while the eight-time grand slam champion is periodically pointing at the TV, telling you what is about to happen.
Nostradamian analysis
As laidback as Agassi sounds though, he is not just aimlessly shooting the shit at a bar. Despite not working in tennis full-time since coaching Novak Djokovic in 2018, the American still has an incredible ability to read the game.
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A new set of tennis balls, the received wisdom always says, favours the server. It’s only half-true, Agassi points out. On second serve, he says, it gives the returner an advantage, being able to hit the ball back harder.
Fritz promptly misses a first serve, and Agassi sounds the charge.
“Let’s see if he [Alcaraz] decides to not back up, which he shouldn’t. He should get up on that baseline and put a proper cut to a big target,” Agassi says.
Alcaraz promptly does, catching Fritz on the baseline with a deep return at his feet, winning the point.
“And there you have the quick error,” Agassi adds. You can almost hear him bow with satisfaction.
It’s Tony Romo-esque stuff. When the Dallas Cowboys quarterback retired, he was quickly ushered into the commentary box, and for the first year, listening to him commentate on American football was like being in the huddle itself, so often did he exactly call what was going to happen. It didn’t feel legal.
Romo’s clairvoyance faded with time as his career moved further into the rear-view mirror, but Agassi has managed to preserve his, despite retiring nearly 20 years ago.
You compare that to Andrew Castle, who along with Tim Henman kept Agassi company in the box. Castle retired in 1992 and had a career-high ranking of No 80 in the world. He is an experienced “safe pair of hands” in a commentary box for the BBC – and it is important to pitch Wimbledon coverage to fans who only watch tennis once a year.
But Castle also regularly finds himself trending on social media. It is rarely an avalanche of accolades.
Agassi was a surprise arrival in the BBC commentary box (Photo: Getty)“He was going to leave that ball, I think!” Castle cried in disbelief when Alcaraz made yet another implausible drop volley.
Agassi had to interrupt: “Alcaraz? No this dude is like the Matrix, he got out the way on purpose to catch it deep, to soften it. He had every intention of doing it!”
Castle realised. “Oh! You’re right!”
You don’t have to have been a great horse to be a great jockey, but it helps if you know your way around the best stables.
‘Mad as box of frogs’
And when Agassi isn’t predicting the future or explaining greatness, he’s turning out phrases that might be meat and drink to a Las Vegas club pro, but provide welcome respite from the Home Counties charm of Henman and Castle.
“A clunker” is how Agassi described one of Alcaraz’s signature drops in concentration. After another amazing stretch volley, he added: “For those of you at home, Alcaraz is only 6ft tall – but he covers the court like an octopus.” On Fritz’s up and down form, he came out with the pithy observation that “the most under-rated weapon in tennis is short-term memory loss”.
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Agassi isn’t putting it on either. “He’s an amazing person to hang out with. Very interesting and open guy,” says one tennis insider. “Mad as a box of frogs, but great company.”
Castle and Henman thought so too, begging him to come back for the final. He promised he would be trying to get a seat on court, but would have to think about whether one in the commentary box would be comfortable.
Viewers will desperately hope he says yes.
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