'Be comfortable in your own identity' - Agassi's advice to Raducanu

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'Don't judge the best of yourself by results' - Agassi's advice to Raducanu

As Emma Raducanu plots a route back to the pinnacle of tennis, the Briton has been taking inspiration from Andre Agassi's 2009 autobiography.

Five years have passed since Raducanu's remarkable US Open triumph, when at the age of 18 she became the first qualifier in the Open era to win a Grand Slam.

American Agassi was a teenage prodigy himself and later claimed the first of his eight major singles titles at Wimbledon in 1992 aged 22.

But between the peak years of his career, he had to overcome a challenging period when he went four years without a major and dropped to 141st in the world rankings.

"I was especially intrigued by the passage where he got out of his slump in the late 1990s by creating his own training regimen and finding his way back to the top," Raducanu told Uniqlo.

"It speaks in depth about his early successes and the lows he reached, perhaps as a result of them.

"A lot of it was so relatable."

Agassi said his hope was for his experiences to help other players going through similar periods in their own careers.

"It's wonderful to hear that anybody can relate," Agassi told BBC Breakfast.

"It was literally the hope that if one person read it and it gave them hope, some tools to understand that they're not alone, they can figure it out and get to a healthier place without having to direct their frustrations at the game of tennis, then it was a success for me.

"So, hearing that 17 years later it can still impact somebody, especially in this game, it does make me feel good."

Image source, Getty ImagesImage caption, Andre Agassi won his first Grand Slam title at Wimbledon in 1992

Raducanu reached a career-high ranking of 10 in July 2022, but the 23-year-old has slipped to 98th in the world.

Her progress continues to be hampered by physical issues, and she most recently missed the US Open as she continues her recovery from a stress fracture in her lower right leg.

A foot injury disrupted her pre-season training before she spent two-and-a-half months off court with a post-viral illness earlier this year.

But Raducanu enjoyed one of the best weeks of her career at Queen's Club in June, reaching her biggest final since her triumph in New York five years ago.

Agassi won all four of the sport's Grand Slams and claimed Olympic singles gold at the 1996 Games.

Asked what advice he would give Raducanu, Agassi said: "I would encourage her to focus on being the best of herself on a daily basis, but don't judge that by results or thinking that somehow you have to be 100%.

"You have to learn to be 100% of whatever percent you're at [and] be comfortable in your own identity inside of that - not what people say.

"Back in my day, I could just put down the paper and not read it. Now it seems like it's harder for these youngsters to avoid."

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That additional pressure, Agassi says, led him to play with "fear". It was not until he sank from world number one to 141st that he felt able to reconnect with the sport.

Agassi, who created a foundation providing education for under-served children during that time, said: "I had more success from that point forward than I did playing out of fear.

"The first thing I would advise a parent to think about is that it's not their life, it's their child.

"You raise a child in their way and they'll never depart from it. You just have to find out what their way is."

Agassi will captain Team USA in the Laver Cup at The O2 in London later this week, between 25-27 September.

"Tennis is a hamster wheel of sorts - the fact that these guys make room in their schedule to play this incredible event tells you how great this event is," Agassi added.

"We're obviously playing Team Europe, in Europe, so I don't know where the crowd is going to have their heart.

"But I know one thing - they're going to see some spectacular tennis."

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