{"id":376047,"date":"2026-01-18T00:09:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T00:09:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/376047\/"},"modified":"2026-01-18T00:09:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T00:09:09","slug":"andre-agassi-on-why-roger-federer-lleyton-hewitt-were-so-tough-to-face-atp-tour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/376047\/","title":{"rendered":"Andre Agassi on why Roger Federer &#038; Lleyton Hewitt were so tough to face&#8230; | ATP Tour"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>    Agassi on why Federer &amp; Hewitt were so tough to face&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>American opens on fellow ATP No. 1 Club Members<\/p>\n<p>January 17, 2026<\/p>\n<p>            <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/fed-agassi-2026-ao.jpg\" alt=\"Roger Federer and Andre Agassi team on Saturday in Melbourne.\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>        Roger Federer and Andre Agassi team on Saturday in Melbourne.<br \/>\n        By Sam Jacot<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.atptour.com\/en\/players\/andre-agassi\/a092\/overview\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Andre Agassi<\/a> may have finished his running for the night, but he was still in full analyst mode after sharing the court with fellow ATP No. 1 Club Members <a href=\"https:\/\/www.atptour.com\/en\/players\/roger-federer\/f324\/overview\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Roger Federer<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.atptour.com\/en\/players\/lleyton-hewitt\/h432\/overview\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Lleyton Hewitt<\/a> at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.atptour.com\/en\/tournaments\/australian-open\/580\/overview\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Australian Open<\/a> on Saturday evening.<\/p>\n<p>Following an entertaining exhibition doubles clash alongside Federer, Hewitt and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.atptour.com\/en\/players\/patrick-rafter\/r255\/overview\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Patrick Rafter<\/a>, Agassi spoke with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.atptour.com\/en\/players\/jim-courier\/c243\/overview\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jim Courier<\/a> about what made Hewitt and Federer so difficult to face during their time at the top of the game.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEvery No. 1 player in the world brings something so unique to the game,\u201d Agassi said, nodding toward Hewitt. \u201cI watched Lleyton do it. He turned a transition game phenomenally. He turned defence into offense. We saw fast players that stayed on defence.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>You May Also Like: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.atptour.com\/en\/news\/federer-agassi-hewitt-rafter-australian-open-doubles-2026\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Federer, Agassi, Hewitt &amp; Rafter light up Australian Open ceremony<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Agassi and Hewitt split their Lexus ATP Head2Head rivalry at 4\u20134, with all eight meetings coming on hard courts. The American, however, trailed Federer 3\u20138, and his tone shifted noticeably when reflecting on the Swiss great.<\/p>\n<p><a rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.atptour.com\/en\/news\/atp-number-one-club\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1768199891_139_atp-no-1-club-banner-article.jpg\" alt=\"\u201cATP\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThen all of a sudden you play this guy <a href=\"https:\/\/www.atptour.com\/en\/players\/roger-federer\/f324\/overview\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Roger Federer<\/a> and it was like time stood still,\u201d Agassi said. \u201cYou hit the ball and it leaves your racquet exactly how you want it, yet he has all the time in the world. You couldn\u2019t commit because he could change pace or direction. He could move you north and south, east and west. I knew I was facing the efforts of the next generation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Federer went on to spend a record 310 weeks as the No. 1 player in the PIF ATP Rankings, including 237 consecutively. Hewitt held top spot for 80 weeks, last occupying the position in June 2003, while Agassi spent 101 weeks as the World\u2019s No. 1, briefly reclaiming the spot from Hewitt during that era.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Agassi on why Federer &amp; Hewitt were so tough to face&#8230; American opens on fellow ATP No. 1&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":376048,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[101,118,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-376047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=376047"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376047\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/376048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=376047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=376047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=376047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}