Roger Federer has admitted he didn’t like practising with Andre Agassi because the American would hit the ball too hard. The duo met 11 times throughout their respective careers, with the Swiss star winning eight of those matches.

Federer dominated tennis for much of the 2000s as he won 16 of 27 Grand Slams between late 2003 and the start of 2010. In 2005, he took on Agassi in the US Open final after winning his third consecutive Wimbledon title just weeks earlier. Agassi couldn’t get close to his rival at Flushing Meadows, with Federer winning the showdown in four sets. But it was on the practice court that Agassi appeared to get under the skin of the 20-time Grand Slam champion.

Federer spoke about Agassi during an appearance on a live edition of Served with Andy Roddick. And the 44-year-old explained: “I didn’t like practising with Andre because it was just like bang, bang, bang. And I’m thinking it would be nice to roll a couple, hit a few, slice a few. And it’s none of that.

“It’s like three big shots and the fourth one just rockets past you like that. Anyway, that’s not how I train, you know, that’s also not how you do it [Andy]. I think we have high intensity, but we do different things.

“It’s incredible, actually, how we can all practise and play in different ways and get to a successful place.”

Federer then detailed the way in which he thinks tennis has evolved in recent years.

“I feel like there’s great returning, I feel like they return so easily nowadays,” he stated. “I don’t know if it’s conditions that are a bit slower or they are just better at it.

“Making returns was hard. That’s why I sliced, you know, just get it in. Just float it in there and figure it out.”

Federer added: “More baseline slog fest [nowadays], more heavy hitting. Forehand goes big, backhand goes big, forehand goes big, backhand goes big. Back in the day, every player used to have a little hole in their game.

“What I see now, I think it’s just getting more and more physical. And I think also everybody practises that way, they practise hitting hard like Agassi used to do. I think he was the first to do that.

“Then Rafa [Nadal] came in, same thing. He’s the sort of guy you don’t want to practise with, just going big all the time.”

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