‘Tennis is in the era of 3 GOATs at the same time’

NEW DELHI: “I wake up every day very grateful that the peak of my career wasn’t during this generation,” said Andre Agassi, breaking into peals of laughter, sitting alongside his wife and fellow tennis legend Steffi Graf. Agassi’s long career was immersed in an intense rivalry with Pete Sampras, whose record for most Grand Slams in men’s tennis was surpassed by three men from the following era – Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic; men who Agassi is glad that he didn’t have to compete against.

“Because if that was the case, I’d be on here talking about how I almost won this and almost won that,” he said during a session at the 18th Hindustan Times Leadership Summit.

Nadal recently tied Federer for the record on 20 Grand Slams, with Djokovic hot on their heels with 17. These num

bers and their longevity have left Agassi -- who won 8 majors himself, including the Golden Slam like Graf -- with little doubt over why the ongoing era is the greatest the sport has seen. “We have three guys that are arguably the greatest of all time. And they’re all playing at the same time, which is just remarkable… they have really done what the sport hasn’t seen and they will continue for a little bit longer,” he said.

Graf, whose Open-era record of 22 majors was surpassed by Serena Williams (who is now one shy of Margaret Court’s alltime record of 24), was just as effusive in her praise of the American she seemingly passed the baton on to. “Her accomplishments have been incredible, and watching her through such a long career – it’s amazing,” Graf said about the 39-year-old Williams. “I felt like I was pretty ready at 29-30 to retire. Seeing how determined she still is out there – that’s just mesmerising to me.”

But when asked what she made of the greatest-of-all-time (G.O.A.T.) debate in women’s tennis, Graf smiled. “I’m just happy that I’m in that equation,” she said. “In terms of the greatest of all time, I am so content and happy with the career that I had, it’s honestly not important for me. Life is so far away from tennis at this point, I don’t lose sleep about something like that.”

Graf and Williams only met twice on the court, and won one match each. But the evening of Agassi’s career coincided heavily with the dawn of Federer’s, and the man from Las Vegas lost eight out of 11 meetings – including in the US Open final in 2005. “The day I [first] played Federer, that was the day I realised I was playing the greatest player of all time,” said Agassi, who, by his own estimation, has played across four generations of tennis. “I never got to play against Nadal’s best tennis and I am very thankful for that. I’d rather witness it from my couch than see it from the worst seat in the house, which is the other side of the tennis court.”

Asked to make a choice between the three “greatests”, Agassi said there were points in favour of each of them. “You can make an argument for Djokovic, too, who can play on any surface and be the favourite to win -which is a remarkable thing to say during this generation.But overall tennis is the winner. It is great for me to watch it and appreciate it and when it ends, we are all going to miss it!”

In a freewheeling conversation, the two also spoke about their personal chemistry, how they manage to tick despite their contrasting personalities (Graf says she is reticent, Agassi open), raising children, their charity work, and dealing with the pandemic.