Andre Agassi touches down for Australian Open 2024, has pleasant interaction with Carlos Alcaraz in Melbourne
Andre Agassi has touched down in Melbourne ahead of the 2024 Australian Open, where he is scheduled to take part in the trophy presentation ahead of the kickstart of the tournament on Sunday, January 14.
The American is a four-time winner at the Australian Open, having won the title in 1995, 2000, 2001, and 2003. He also reached two semifinals at the Rod Laver Arena, in 1996 and 2004.
On Saturday, the eight-time Grand Slam champion was present on the premises of the Melbourne Major, as revealed by the Australian Open's official social media handles. One of the clips shared by the officials on the Twitter account showed Agassi hilariously staring into the camera, maintaining eye contact with viewers as if it were a staring contest.
The former World No. 1 also caught sight of Carlos Alcaraz while he was there, and was seen having a pleasant interaction with the two-time Grand Slam champion and regaling him with his stories.
Andre Agassi: "Novak Djokovic has won more Australian Opens than I've won Slams"
Speaking in a recent interview, Andre Agassi lavished praise on World No. 1 Novak Djokovic, marveling at how the Serb has won the Australian Open more times than the total number of Slams he has won in his career.
Djokovic lifted his 10th title in Melbourne last year and has won the tournament more often than anyone else in history.
“Novak has won more Australian Opens than I’ve won Slams for crying out loud … What do you do but laugh? I don’t know what to say to that. These are different numbers. It’s like talking about Rafa in Paris, right? I don’t understand it," Andre Agassi said.
The American also hailed the many records Djokovic has to his name now, including the most number of Slams in the Open Era, the most Masters 1000 titles in history, and the most weeks spent as World No. 1.
"There’s so many ways to look at it, but when you look at it on paper you just can’t argue with what he’s accomplished. The amount that he’s won, the head-to-heads, the Masters, the year-end No.1s, the weeks at No.1 … All those stats," he added.
This year, the World No. 1 will start his campaign against qualifier Dino Prizmic. He is expected to face seventh seed Stefanos Tsitsipas (last year's runner-up) in the quarterfinals, fourth seed Jannik Sinner in the semifinals, and second seed Carlos Alcaraz in the final).