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Former champion recalls Agassi as a `skinny kid`
Melbourne, Feb 04: Seven-time grand slam titlist Mats Wilander said he first remembered Andre Agassi as a `skinny kid` from Las Vegas who could hit the ball hard but not very accurately.
Melbourne, Feb 04: Seven-time grand slam titlist Mats Wilander said he first remembered Andre Agassi as a "skinny kid" from Las Vegas who could hit the ball hard but not very accurately.
Last month, the former No. 1-ranked Wilander wrote in Melbourne's Sunday Age newspaper that he first met Agassi in 1986 when Wilander was the top-seeded player at a La Quinta, California tournament.
"We went onto the court and in the warmup, after the first four or five shots, I'm thinking, 'Oh my God, this guy can really hit the ball,'" Wilander wrote. "He was just hitting the ball so clean, like nobody else, even at that age."
But Agassi was also hitting them well out. Wilander wrote that when he was asked what he thought about Agassi's game, he responded by saying Agassi "doesn't know how to play the game. He understands how to hit a lot of shots, but he doesn't understand how to win points or construct points."
Wilander now says Agassi has "honed his tennis brain" and "knows his game better than any other player".
"I believe Agassi, like Bjorn Borg and Boris Becker before him, has changed the way the game is played in his time," wrote Wilander.
Bureau Report
Last month, the former No. 1-ranked Wilander wrote in Melbourne's Sunday Age newspaper that he first met Agassi in 1986 when Wilander was the top-seeded player at a La Quinta, California tournament.
"We went onto the court and in the warmup, after the first four or five shots, I'm thinking, 'Oh my God, this guy can really hit the ball,'" Wilander wrote. "He was just hitting the ball so clean, like nobody else, even at that age."
But Agassi was also hitting them well out. Wilander wrote that when he was asked what he thought about Agassi's game, he responded by saying Agassi "doesn't know how to play the game. He understands how to hit a lot of shots, but he doesn't understand how to win points or construct points."
Wilander now says Agassi has "honed his tennis brain" and "knows his game better than any other player".
"I believe Agassi, like Bjorn Borg and Boris Becker before him, has changed the way the game is played in his time," wrote Wilander.
Bureau Report