"He just kind of kicked me out of the event" - Andy Roddick takes humorous shot at Andre Agassi ahead of Pickleball Slam 3
ATP
Some tennis rivalries extend beyond the world of just one sport, as is evident by the back-and-forth banter between retired tennis pros Andrey Agassi and Andy Roddick ahead of a pickleball exhibition event.
The two American tennis greats will compete against each other at the third edition of the pickleball event, termed Pickleball Slam 3. The inaugural edition saw Agassi and Roddick defeat John McEnroe and Michael Chang to win the $1 million prize. Pickleball Slam 2 had Agassi compete alongside his wife, Steffi Graf, as the legendary duo defeated the team of McEnroe and Maria Sharapova.
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Roddick and Agassi to square off in mixed competition
Pickleball Slam 3 will see Agassi and his wife once again compete at the event, this time taking on the team of Roddick and Eugenie Bouchard. The Canadian has shifted her focus from tennis to pickleball in recent months, and could prove to be a challenge for Team Agassi.
In a video clip posted on the Pickleball Slam account, Roddick took a playful dig at his opponent. The 2003 US Open champion believes Agassi kicked him off his team in order to play with his wife, a slight that Roddick has seemingly not gotten over.
"It was a weird thing for me to just totally carry Andre [Agassi] to victory and then he just kind of, I think he just kind of kicked me out of the event and went on with his business," said Roddick. "I guess that’s what happens when you have a wife who's the best of all time as an option."
"Those events [Pickleball Slam] are amazing for me because you have people in a room, whether it's Andre and Steff, who are in kind of like full go mode again. They're just doing stuff, which is amazing.
"Like I've known Andre and he's been my idol for a long time but I have a hard time being in Steff's presence without being like incredibly starstruck. Steff is like a huge exception, I can't be around around her without feeling like everything I say is just idiotic, which it might be, I'm just more conscious of it."
"Those events [Pickleball Slam] are amazing for me because you have people in a room, whether it's Andre and Steff, who are in kind of like full go mode again. They're just doing stuff, which is amazing.
"Like I've known Andre and he's been my idol for a long time but I have a hard time being in Steff's presence without being like incredibly starstruck. Steff is like a huge exception, I can't be around around her without feeling like everything I say is just idiotic, which it might be, I'm just more conscious of it."
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Growing up in a household where soccer was king, my earliest memories are filled with chants from packed stadiums and the rhythm of a ball being passed across neighborhood streets. But somewhere along the way, the quiet elegance and raw emotion of tennis pulled me in. What began as a curiosity became a lifelong passion; not just for the sport itself, but for the stories it tells: of grit, of heartbreak, of improbable comebacks and human resilience.
As a tennis writer, I bring the observational lens of someone who didn’t grow up in the sport, but fell in love with it as an outsider; a perspective that lets me see both its technical beauty and its emotional depth. Over the years working with TennisUpToDate, I’ve had the privilege of reaching more than 3.5 million readers worldwide, with one of my features ranking among the site’s top three articles.
With a background in storytelling and a creative mind always searching for meaning beyond the scoreboard, I aim to craft narratives that go deeper than results and rankings. Whether it’s a rising star breaking through or a veteran fighting off Father Time, I try to capture the heartbeat behind the headlines.
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