WIMBLEDON — It took Andre Agassi just minutes to send down winners in the BBC studio and make a point of Sir Andy Murray’s critique regarding tennis coverage.
A welcome arrival for the BBC, a late arrival too, Agassi joined Tim Henman and John McEnroe on Friday to preview Novak Djokovic’s Wimbledon semi-final with Jannik Sinner – before then commentating on the match as well.
Henman was the British rose sat between two of tennis’ thornier characters, and the back-and-forth between Agassi and McEnroe – with 17 grand slam singles titles between them – was as engrossing as any encounter this week.
Henman was enjoying it too: after McEnroe eventually declared he had to go – he juggles BBC with ESPN duties at SW19 – he still wanted to hear Agassi’s take on Djokovic versus Sinner, perhaps forgetting he was asking one of the great readers of this sport.
A lengthy, deeply analytical answer followed, and after Henman quipped “is this all you got?”, McEnroe insisted “no, no, I want to hear the end of this”.
Agassi added: “I’ve also seen Novak do a lot of bitching over his career about his body and certain situations, but you always feel like he’s thrown a bag of tricks at you.”
Henman was sat between Agassi and McEnroe in the BBC studio (Photo: BBC)For those interested, “bitch” falls into Ofcom’s mild category in terms of language, so should not incur censure from the regulator, and to borrow the phrase in its slang form, it is Agassi’s analysis that is truly bitching.
Outswearing McEnroe and also keeping him quiet is some going, but when the career Grand Slam champion talks, he holds court. Everyone listens.
By that point Agassi had already delivered a brilliant one-liner, remarking that his stint coaching Djokovic only lasted for “for a half-cup of coffee”. (It was a 10-month spell that ended in March 2018.)
“I did conclude, without disclosing too much of the psychological side, that he never needed a coach, he just needed someone to disagree with,” Agassi said.
Djokovic still divides opinion but to have someone who can paint the Serbian’s career so eloquently is invaluable for BBC’s coverage, not to mention the input he had on it, however brief. “I believe the game deserved in history for him to be respected for what he was capable of. I thought he could do a lot more and be recognised as the best ever,” he said.
Agassi added: “Let’s call it like it is, I don’t think there’s a person on this planet that can come up with a new adjective to describe his accomplishments and what he’s meant for the game. Endless, tireless, you aren’t going to get anything new from me talking about how great he’s been.
“But what I can say too is tennis fans’ memories are long, tennis history books are even longer, but tennis can’t even remember yesterday. It does matter who you are today and what you can do today and who you play today – and we’re going to see a couple heavyweights.”
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Ben Rothenberg: I’m American – here are the seven most painfully English things about Wimbledon Michael Hincks: The BBC is trying to prove Andy Murray wrong – and failingThen, taking his seat in the Centre Court commentary box, few were better qualified to analyse a match-up between the defending champion and a seven-time champion here.
The BBC would love to have Murray in that box as well, but the last time he was there in 2018 he signed off by saying, “that was horrific”. Henman remarked last week that the experience has left the two-time Wimbledon champion “scarred for life”.
Murray has chosen YouTube instead after declaring this year he does not find tennis coverage “that interesting or that insightful”.
But that is certainly not the case when Agassi is on the microphone. And even though – like last year – he has only joined the BBC for the final days of this tournament, he has been worth the wait.
He is the BBC’s trump card, whipped out just when they needed it most.
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