(Monday PM: See update after the video)
Andre Agassi has been in the news a lot lately, mostly for the soul-searching autobiography he wrote. Over the past few months even as he lost some fans he made many, many more with the candor in his book and the honesty with which he talked about his own foibles.
A couple of days ago he got into a spat with Pete Sampras at an exhibition event. The genesis of the disagreement lies in his admission in Open the Sampras is a lousy tipper. The mood just got a little uncomfortable after that for not just the two of them but also the other fellows on the court (Federer and Nadal) and the crowd.
Agassi, did you really have to resort to such a cheap shot? (And while at it, Sampras, couldn't you have let it slide and not contribute to the escalation?)
Clearly, Agassi still has some angst leftover in him.
Update: Rick Reilly spoke to Agaasi after the incident and Andre makes a point that, while it does not condone him for the extremely cheap shot, does give it some relevance and is a pertinent one. Agassi says:
"It was out of line," he (Agassi) told me in a phone call Monday. "It was inappropriate. The night was on fire. We were all having fun. I was trying to be comedic. I only had a split second to make a decision. I went for it and it fell flat. I was trying to get past it, but Pete didn't really let me get past it. He didn't really roll with it. I've texted Pete to ask him if I can apologize in person."
3 comments:
Thanks for this ! I didn't read about this in any site here.
Wonder what got into Agassi's head to do this - really cheap, and unbecoming of the bloke.
Frankly I don't have an issue with what Sampras did.
Good one. Does it mean once a rival, it always stays the same.
It was more funny, when Roger said, "Rafael start do something"
TG,
I was perplexed by Agassi's reaction, too. Sampras' imitation of Agassi's pigeon-toed walk was not in bad taste - it is Andre's most distinctive trait. However Agassi said (to Tick Reilly, as noted in the update on my post) that he reacted on the spur of the moment with something that he thought was funny and it backfired spectacularly.
I don't think Agassi will be on too many family engagement invitation from the Sampras household for a long time to come.
AV, yes, this gives the Federer-Nadal rivalry another plus point in that the two fellows compete as hard as possible on the court but are good friends off it.
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