Andre Agassi Reveals his Favourite Opponent to Play Against | AO Active

The American legend reflects upon his road to the Australian Open final in 2001 and a very special semifinal in which he competed against his favourite opponent of all time.

Welcome to the official Australian Open TV YouTube channel. The Australian Open 2022 main draw runs from 17-30 January in Melbourne. The tournament takes place for the 110th time and is the first Grand Slam of the year. Novak Djokovic is the men’s singles reigning champion and Naomi Osaka is the women’s singles reigning champion. The tournament takes place on 25 hard courts, including Rod Laver Arena, John Cain Arena and Margaret Court Arena. Look out for highlights, press conferences, memorable moments and much more!

[TigerWoodard]

He really is a great competitor and a great human being. I'm amazed at all he's done for tennis. God bless you Mr Agassi

[mmd]

Rafter and Agassi - such great players. Love them ❤

[solarwind]

Wow, that's a very thoughtful, nuanced commentary... amazing that Andre still remembers these fine details...

[Mamushi]

Wish I got to see more of Agassi. Only saw a few Wimbledon matches of his before I really got into Tennis. Absolute Legend.

[darlaevitts]

If this was back in the 50’s and 60’s Rafter would probably be dominating with his serve and volley style that was so prevalent back in those days. Rafter was an anomaly. Playing old school tennis in the modern day, which works against serve and volley players. It’s so hard to win now as a pure serve and volley player. As for Agassi , he gave great respect to Pat. He and Pat class acts.

and Pat both

[skippythealien]

man playing in Australia in the heart of the summer there sounds BRUTAL

[itsmeforsure]

One moment I remember about Andre is in the french open final against Medvedev. Andre was getting crushed in the 1st 2 sets and it looked ugly. Andre came back and took the trophy. He was a fighter.

[danoliver]

Their Wimbledon semi finals were fantastic.

[peterbedford]

I remember when Pat beat Andre at Wimbledon with a weird lob.

[hiwayman]

I have this match on DVD; for me, it WAS the final match of the men's singles tournament that year in Melbourne, as the final featuring Andre and Arnaud Clement was something of an anti-climax after the semi shown here, with the defending champion matching up against the Aussie's native son. I like the way Andre expressed his head-to-head against Patrick, the clash of styles across all of the surfaces (I think they played once or twice on clay). Sampras was Agassi's chief competitor of course, and while Pat's and Pete's styles were similar, several players have said that Sampras could literally take the racquet out of their hands, his serve being more powerful, volley's more crisp, and movement more effective than Rafter's on most occasions.

[JiraiyaSama]

I guessed right. It was consistent with what I've heard him say before. With Pete, you never know what version of him you'll get. But Pat, it's an open book, and they both get to duke it out.

[zakkwyldesdmf]

Patrick Rafter sort of reminds me of Keanu Reeves. If the latter were a tennis player he'd be just like Patrick Rafter.

[binhaizhu]

Pete's serve was unreturnable if on (like in Wimbledon'99), and at that point there was nothing Andre (in fact, anybody) could do. The match was then completely one-sided and boring (not Pete's fault, of course). With Pat it was always an open-book kind of match, practically Pat served to volley, not to ace. Then Andre's passing kicks in.

[yacovmitchenko]

It would have been quite something for a player to admit that the most enjoyable opponent was one against whom he had a losing record.