Andre Agassi criticised Jannik Sinner’s French Open defeat to Juan Manuel Cerundolo at the French Open.
Speaking to TNT Sports, Agassi said there was ‘no excuse’ for Sinner to ‘run into a wall’ after an hour and 45 minutes.
Agassi was referring to Sinner’s physical collapse from 6-3, 6-2, 5-1, up against Cerundolo in the second round.
Where does Jannik Sinner’s defeat to Juan Manuel Cerundolo rank among the most shocking results in tennis history?
Another former world number one, Andy Roddick, has now shared what he told Agassi about his criticism of Sinner.
Andy Roddick told Andre Agassi he had the ‘credentials’ to criticise Jannik Sinner
During the latest episode of ‘Served with Andy Roddick‘, the 43-year-old shared the details of a private conversation he had with Agassi.
“I’m texting with Andre [Agassi], like I text all the time. He said that he actually talked to Darren [Cahill] first, because there is a complexity there, where you don’t share a decade with someone with a coach and then blindside them; you just don’t do that,” said Roddick.
“Darren said, ‘Someone needs to wake up the perceived experts.’ Everyone has a theory…
“I did say this to Andre, ‘Yes, and you have the credentials to say it, not just some blowhard saying something for clicks, and I think that’s why it landed!’
“This isn’t some person somewhere saying something they don’t understand; Andre understands what it is to prepare, to be the guy that has eyeballs on you and all that.
“And he doesn’t need a job, so therefore, he can just say it, it was interesting.”
Roddick continued, defending Agassi’s criticism of the world number one.
Official ATP Rankings
| Rank | Name | Country | Points |
| 1 | Jannik Sinner | Italy | 13,500 |
| 2 | Carlos Alcaraz | Spain | 9,960 |
| 3 | Alexander Zverev | Germany | 7,305 |
| 4 | Felix Auger-Aliassime | Canada | 4,440 |
| 5 | Ben Shelton | USA | 3,920 |
“I said on air the other day, he left me a voice note that I cannot play on air. In Australia, when it was the Sinner/ [Eliot] Spizzirri matchup, it was kind of the same thing,” he said.
“I don’t exactly care for standing on the sun if you’re an hour and 20 minutes into a match.
“Do we know everything? Probably not. Is he going to get asked about it? Absolutely.
“Is it fair to say that under any circumstances, you should be able to get through an hour and 40 minutes? I think that’s fair criticism.
“I think Jannik would tell you that is fair criticism.”
Roddick believes Agassi has earned the right to criticise players, and insists he’s sharing his thoughts for the right reasons.
“Andre went away; we didn’t see him for 15 years. He’s not in the attention business,” said Roddick.
“He’s not one of the ones who needs to be at every match, doing every match, in the mix. That’s not his deal; he only came in for four days, but he left a little bit of a trail!
“But I don’t think anyone is looking at him and saying that’s completely out of line or unfair.”
Roddick doesn’t think Agassi said anything wrong, but were his comments really fair?
Andre Agassi made one mistake in his criticism of Jannik Sinner
Agassi claimed he would never have run into a physical wall as early as Sinner did in Paris.
But there lies the issue, he wouldn’t have…
Acting like all tennis players have the same physical make-up is ridiculous.
Sinner is 6 ft 3 in, four inches taller and more fair-skinned than Agassi.
When the weather is at its hottest, of course, it will affect someone like Sinner more than Agassi.
Now, that’s not to say that Sinner can’t work on that area of his game and try to be better prepared in the future, but Agassi’s criticism does come across as slightly ignorant.
There is no denying that the eight-time Grand Slam champion has earned the right to share his opinion, although that doesn’t mean it can’t be challenged.
