{"id":685165,"date":"2026-07-11T00:26:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T00:26:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/685165\/"},"modified":"2026-07-11T00:26:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T00:26:11","slug":"andre-agassi-is-saving-bbcs-wimbledon-coverage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/685165\/","title":{"rendered":"Andre Agassi is saving BBC’s Wimbledon coverage"},"content":{"rendered":"

WIMBLEDON \u2014 It took Andre Agassi just minutes to send down winners in the BBC studio and make a point of Sir Andy Murray\u2019s critique<\/a> regarding tennis coverage.<\/p>\n

A welcome arrival for the BBC, a late arrival too, Agassi joined Tim Henman and John McEnroe on Friday to preview Novak Djokovic\u2019s Wimbledon<\/a> semi-final with Jannik Sinner \u2013 before then commentating on the match as well.<\/p>\n

Henman was the British rose sat between two of tennis\u2019 thornier characters, and the back-and-forth between Agassi and McEnroe \u2013 with 17 grand slam singles titles between them \u2013 was as engrossing as any encounter this week.<\/p>\n

Henman was enjoying it too: after McEnroe eventually declared he had to go \u2013 he juggles BBC with ESPN duties at SW19 \u2013 he still wanted to hear Agassi\u2019s take on Djokovic versus Sinner, perhaps forgetting he was asking one of the great readers of this sport.<\/p>\n

A lengthy, deeply analytical answer followed, and after Henman quipped \u201cIs this all you got?\u201d, McEnroe insisted \u201cNo, no, I want to hear the end of this\u201d.<\/p>\n

Agassi added: \u201cI\u2019ve also seen Novak do a lot of bitching over his career about his body and certain situations, but you always feel like he\u2019s thrown a bag of tricks at you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Henman was sat between Agassi and McEnroe in the BBC studio (Photo: BBC)<\/p>\n

For those interested, \u201cbitch\u201d falls into Ofcom\u2019s mild category in terms of language, so should not incur censure from the regulator, and to borrow the phrase in its slang form, it is Agassi\u2019s analysis that is truly bitching.<\/p>\n

Outswearing McEnroe and also keeping him quiet is some going, but when the career Grand Slam champion talks, he holds court. Everyone listens.<\/p>\n

By that point, Agassi had already delivered a brilliant one-liner, remarking that his stint coaching Djokovic only lasted for \u201cfor a half-cup of coffee\u201d. (It was a 10-month spell that ended in March 2018.)<\/p>\n

\u201cI did conclude, without disclosing too much of the psychological side, that he never needed a coach, he just needed someone to disagree with,\u201d Agassi said.<\/p>\n

Djokovic still divides opinion<\/a> but to have someone who can paint the Serbian\u2019s career so eloquently is invaluable for BBC\u2019s coverage, not to mention the input he had on it, however brief. \u201cI believe the game deserved in history for him to be respected for what he was capable of. I thought he could do a lot more and be recognised as the best ever,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Agassi added: \u201cLet\u2019s call it like it is, I don\u2019t think there\u2019s a person on this planet that can come up with a new adjective to describe his accomplishments and what he\u2019s meant for the game. Endless, tireless, you aren\u2019t going to get anything new from me talking about how great he\u2019s been.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut what I can say too is tennis fans\u2019 memories are long, tennis history books are even longer, but tennis can\u2019t even remember yesterday. It does matter who you are today and what you can do today and who you play today \u2013 and we\u2019re going to see a couple heavyweights.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more<\/p>\n

Then, taking his seat in the Centre Court commentary box, few were better qualified to analyse a match-up between the defending champion and a seven-time champion here.<\/p>\n

And as Djokovic\u2019s hopes faded, Agassi remarked: \u201cIn this sport as in life, hope is fragile but hard to kill.\u201d An opening line of a novel, not mere tennis commentary. <\/p>\n

The BBC would love to have Murray in that box as well, but the last time he was there in 2018 he signed off by saying, \u201cthat was horrific\u201d. Henman remarked last week that the experience has left the two-time Wimbledon champion \u201cscarred for life\u201d.<\/p>\n

Murray has chosen YouTube instead after declaring this year he does not find tennis coverage \u201cthat interesting or that insightful\u201d.<\/p>\n

But that is certainly not the case when Agassi is on the microphone. And even though \u2013 like last year<\/a> \u2013 he has only joined the BBC for the final days of this tournament, he has been worth the wait.<\/p>\n

He is the BBC\u2019s trump card, whipped out just when they needed it most.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WIMBLEDON \u2014 It took Andre Agassi just minutes to send down winners in the BBC studio and make…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":685166,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[243,101,72903,118,56,54,55,116],"class_list":["post-685165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-bbc","tag-sports","tag-sports-comment","tag-tennis","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wimbledon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685165","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=685165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685165\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/685166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=685165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=685165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=685165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}