The Way I See It...

A personal view of tennis by Jeff Davies

Agassi and ballkids

So what's the story with Agassi and ballkids?

All other players I know are just eager to deliver their second serve when a ball kid assigned to the net
scampers diagonally across the court to scoop up a netted first serve ball and, to avoid interruption,
continues on and stands at the back of the court until the point has been concluded.

Not Agassi...!
He refuses to play until the ballkid has returned to his position at the net.
No matter how long this interrupts play.

Not only that, he also seems to deliberately go out of his way to make it difficult for a ballkid to recover the 'third ball'
 that Agassi always discards after selecting the two of his choice prior to serving.

Most players manage to hit the ball to the ballkid (some more accurately than others...)

Agassi is known as someone who is able to do whatever he wants with a ball
and that must certainly be the case when he is merely standing and selecting balls.

So why would be deliberately drop the ball off his racquet almost at his at his feet
and make the ballkid run out from his position at the back of the court to retrieve it?

And this is the man who has such a commitment to kids' welfare that he promotes a school that bears his name, the
Andre Agassi College Preparatory Academy
 in his home town of Las Vegas, Nevada.

If anyone knows what experience in his past has resulted in this unusual behavior, please let me know
and I will pass on explanations (or reasonable and/or entertaining speculations..!) to others who may also be interested.

[ And on the subject of Agassi's school, here are the student ratios:
American Indian - 1%
Asian - 3%
Hispanic - 1%
Black - 93%
White - 3% ]