‘Felt like Someone Had Taken a Knife and Stabbed Me’- Coco Gauff’s Coach Brad Gilbert Narrates Painstaking Moment in Coaching Andre Agassi
Andre Agassi as a tennis player was not an easy catch! Even though the career of the 54-year-old tennis player was not all sunshine and roses, he himself was not an easy player to deal with. Recently, one of the legendary coaches who has worked with him, Brad Gilbert, came forward to recall his most painful coaching experience with the eight-time Grand Slam champion.
The 62-year-old tennis coach, who is currently a part of Coco Gauff‘s team, recently appeared on the Fail Better with David Duchovny podcast, where he talked about his coaching experiences. In that conversation, when asked about one of the toughest and most brutal experiences of his career, Gilbert, without wasting a moment, shared the instance that took place surrounding the 1995 US Open.
He stated, “I mean, but I can give you a few of them that just jump out right away. When I was coaching Andre – two brutal ones, the ’95 US Open – he had won 26 consecutive matches, had the most amazing summer, and then goes out and just he was a little bit flat in that morning, you know, playing Pete Sampras in the finals of the ’95 Open.”
Pete Sampras won the 1995 US Open men’s singles championship by defeating reigning winner Andre Agassi 6-4, 6-3, 4-6, 7-5. Along with that, he said, “I could tell – lost that match seven, five and a fourth. I felt like someone had taken a knife and stabbed me. Then, one other one.”
In addition, he also recalled the other brutal match he witnessed with Agassi, in the 2001 US Open quarterfinal once again against Sampras. While the American coach clearly acknowledged the fact that even though, “Andre at that moment was the better player,” at that time the 52-year-old tennis player’s for was unimaginable.
Further, he emphasized the fact that it was brutal and quite heartbreaking for the 8-time Grand Slam champion himself and as a coach for Gilbert too. “I just I felt heartbroken for Andre, and it came down to a few points and the I still think about that match. It’s like you know, it still gets me.” – said Gilbert.
However, there are other memories attached to their partnership. In the same way, did you know that during the US Open in 1994, Agassi’s coach Brad Gilbert vowed to shave his body if the American achieved victory in the tournament?
When Andre Agassi’s ex-coach put up a challenge for the American
The former world number one tennis player once stated that his then-coach, Gilbert, was so excited about him winning the US Open that he planned to shave his body if that happened. In his autobiography, he discussed this episode and stressed how, in 1994, the 62-year-old tennis teacher had wanted him to be unseeded.
“Going into the 1994 U.S. Open, I’m number twenty, therefore unseeded. No unseeded player has won the U.S. Open since the 1960s. Brad likes it. He says he wants me unseeded. He wants me to be the joker in the deck. You’ll play someone tough in the early rounds, he says, and if you beat them, you’ll win this tournament,” Agassi wrote.
