Agassi 'Kicked Me Out' Of Team Says Roddick Ahead Of Pickleball Slam 3 Meeting

Saturday, 23 November 2024 at 02:00

byJordan Reynolds

Andy Roddick and Andre Agassi will compete against each other at Pickleball Slam 3, and Roddick humorously accused the eight-time Grand Slam champion of kicking him off his team.

Although not as popular as tennis, pickleball has emerged as a fun and less intense way of taking to the court. It is great for those who cannot physically manage tennis but still want to get outdoors with a racket.

Some tennis players have tried pickleball. Roger Federer gave his honest opinion about it, admitting he found it fun and that it felt like a big version of ping-pong when he played it for the first time.

Novak Djokovic also made his pickleball debut with Jannik Sinner before this year's US Open. That might have helped the Italian avoid focusing on his doping case being made public before the year's final Grand Slam.

There have been two previous iterations of the Pickleball Slam. In the first, Agassi and Roddick played and defeated John McEnroe and Michael Chang 3-1 to claim a $1 million prize money reward.

The second edition featured Agassi and his legendary wife, Steffi Graf, who triumphed against John McEnroe and Maria Sharapova. Although both events were played in good spirits, Agassi seemed to enjoy beating McEnroe two years running.

Graf and Agassi will play together again this year, this time against Roddick and Eugenie Bouchard. The Canadian has spent most of 2024 focusing on pickleball instead of tennis, meaning Agassi's unbeaten run could be threatened.

Roddick took a playful dig at the four-time Australian Open champion on the Pickleball Slam'3 official social media account, saying Agassi kicked him out for his wife despite their success together in the first year of the event.

"It was a weird thing for me to just totally carry Andre [Agassi] to victory and then he just kind of, I think he just kind of kicked me out of the event and went on with his business. I guess that’s what happens when you have a wife who's the best of all time as an option."

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The 2003 US Open champion then spoke more seriously. While admitting that Agassi was his idol, he feels particularly starstruck when near 22-time Grand Slam champion Graf.

"Those events [Pickleball Slam] are amazing for me because you have people in a room, whether it's Andre and Steff, who are in kind of like full go mode again. They're just doing stuff, which is amazing."

"Like I've known Andre and he's been my idol for a long time but I have a hard time being in Steff's presence without being like incredibly starstruck. Steff is like a huge exception, I can't be around around her without feeling like everything I say is just idiotic, which it might be, I'm just more conscious of it."

It will undoubtedly be fun to see Roddick competing against those two legends of the sport. Having someone young and experienced in pickleball like Bouchard by his side could make the difference at Pickleball Slam 3.