Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf are one of tennis’ most famous couples. The pair met in Wimbledon in the ’90s, at the start of their careers, and married in 2001. Last week, Agassi attended the Wimbledon final between Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic, prompting many to revisit a sweet video where he discusses the impact of meeting Graf and how much he admired her tennis skills.
The video was shared in June by the Australian Open account and shows Agassi discussing the moment he met Graf. “I remember saying to myself, ‘One day I’m gonna marry her,'” he said, leaving the panel moderator in shock. “Really?” asked the moderator. “I’m kidding, I was 18 years old,” said Agassi, prompting laughs. Then he got serious, discussing how much he admired Graf’s skills and attitude as a tennis player.
“She was always so graceful with the way she played. I envied everybody that had something that I didn’t have,” he said. “Her clarity and her professionalism and her methodical… you know, I was just an emotional wreck when I was a teenager.”
“I always marveled at how she could do it so quietly.”
Ever since Agassi and Graf married, he’s been open about his admiration for her, sharing that he had a crush on her long before meeting her. “I’ve had a crush on Steffi since I first saw her doing an interview on French TV,” he wrote in his memoir, ‘Open.’ “I was thunderstruck, dazzled by her understated grace, her effortless beauty.”
The two formally met in 1992, after they both won Wimbledon. The two then had a private practice scheduled by their teams, something that confused Graf, who had a boyfriend and who knew Agassi was married to Brooke Shields. She didn’t know that the two were going through a divorce. They now have two children, Jaden and Jaz.
