On the Thursday before 25 September, Andre Agassi held a press conference alongside his whole team. He was asked about Alexander Bublik. He answered with a piece of advice about his potential.
According to Agassi, Bublik isn’t making full use of that potential and should be aiming for the latter stages of many tournaments. He wants him to favour controlled aggression. Then he added this line, as reported by We Love Tennis: “[…] you have to remember there are six other ways to win a tennis match.”
Six. Not “several”, not “other ways” left vague. A precise number, one the captain didn’t spell out in the quote. Maxime, our intern, got his notebook out.
Silly question, but if there are six other ways, doesn’t that make seven in total? I asked the newsroom to give me the seven. I got three, then an argument over the fourth. Someone said “forcing unforced errors out of your opponent”, someone else said that wasn’t a way, that was a prayer. I checked, and actually nobody knows. Agassi knows, though. He counted. I’d love to see the sheet of paper. Anyway, I still have a lot to learn.
The captain also spoke of a player who can “live on the edge” and get by on immense talent, and said the key lies in finding a middle ground. Maxime underlined “edge” twice. He asked whether it meant the edge of the court or the edge of the tramlines. Someone told him it was a figure of speech. He wrote that down as well, in the margin, next to a small drawing of a tightrope.
Agassi also said what matters is that players give “100 percent of what they’re capable of in that moment”. Maxime wrote that number down too, underneath the six, if you please.
Well, it’s very simple: there are eight. But I’m not going to contradict a captain in public, mind you.
It’s true, we checked: We Love Tennis.
