"It was ridiculous to approach me on something like that"- When Andre Agassi commented on Ivan Lendl complaining about his grunting
Andre Agassi was not happy with Ivan Lendl complaining about his grunting during their US Open semifinal in 1988.
Agassi entered the tournament as the fourth seed and booked his place in the semifinals following wins over Philip Johnson, Rick Leach, Johan Kriek, Michael Chang, and Jimmy Connors. He met three-time defending champion and top seed Ivan Lendl in the last four.
Agassi won the first set 6-4 but his opponent bounced back to take the next three sets 6-2, 6-3, 6-4 to book his place in the final. During the match, Lendl complained to the chair umpire about Andre Agassi's grunting, and the tournament referee Gayle Bradshaw approached the American, which did not please him.
In an interview after the match, the then-teenager claimed that the referee exercised poor judgement in approaching him for grunting.
"It didn't make any sense to be honest. I thought it was ridiculous for him to approach me with something like that. I thought it was very bad judgment on his part but what can you do? I wasn't going to do what John (McEnroe) did last year and yell and scream, so I kind of blew it off," Andre Agassi said.
Ivan Lendl claimed that while Agassi wasn't intentionally grunting to distract his opponents, his volume levels could get disturbing.
"Andre grunts, and that's fine. But when he goes for a big shot he grunts much harder... if it's a winner and you have no play on the ball, that's fine, but when you have a play on the ball it throws off your timing, because you just hear something different. I don't think he does it on purpose, but I don't think he realizes how disturbing it is," Lendl said.
Ivan Lendl went on to lose the US Open final to Mats Wilander, who won 6-4, 4-6, 6-3, 5-7, 6-4 to win his third Grand Slam of 1988.
Andre Agassi and Ivan Lendl faced each other eight times
Andre Agassi and Ivan Lendl squared off on eight occasions, with the latter leading 6-2 in their head-to-head.
The first match between the two took place in the semifinals of the Volvo International in 1987, with Lendl winning 6-2, 5-7, 6-3. Lendl won his first six meetings against Agassi, five of which came in the semifinals of various tournaments. However, Agassi came out on top in their last two encounters.
Agassi beat Lendl 3-6, 6-2, 6-0 in the final of the 1992 Canadian Open before their final fixture, which took place in the quarterfinals of the 1993 Volvo International. The American triumphed 6-2, 6-4 to reach the semifinals, where he was beaten by eventual champion Andriy Medvedev.