Steffi Graf and Andre Agassi take to the court, spend time with tennis enthusiasts in Las Vegas

Yes, it was. Furthermore, there was a compelling reason for Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf, possibly the most successful sports pair ever, to be on campus that day. Jaden, their cunning right-hand pitcher with Major League potential, had just committed to USC. The gathering was to see a Sunday afternoon game featuring his future teammates.

Jaden’s parents, however, found it impossible to resist the allure of the nearby tennis facilities. Together, they had previously dominated the sport, winning 30 major singles titles (with Mom winning 22 out of 8). Agassi took a seat and observed. Austin responds, “You know how Andre is and how his tennis brain works.” “He started dissecting Brandon’s game right away.”And his spouse? “She was just the sweetest,” remembers Austin, whose career coincided with Graf’s for a brief period of time. But Steffi—you know how she is. She may have gone to the burger truck in stealth to get lunch for everyone.

Over the following few years, Graf and Agassi would visit Troy numerous times more. Even though Jaden didn’t choose the same hand-eye sport as his parents, he is nonetheless a very good athlete. As a sophomore, he defeated rival UCLA this past spring. After his head coach left, he just recently signed up for the transfer site; in any case, he’ll probably be selected in the Major League draft.

After Graf left the USC tennis facility that afternoon, a woman who had been sitting close by turned to another.

A woman asked, “Do you know who that was you were talking to?”

The other person said, “She said she had a daughter in high school and her son was playing baseball at USC.” And she and her spouse were present here. Their residence is in Las Vegas.

The companion virtually hissed, “That was Steffi Graf!”

“Not at all! How could I have known?

Former Sports Illustrated journalist David Epstein describes Steffi Graf’s early attendance at a German sports academy in his wonderful book The Sports Gene. She had a series of examinations in which her competitive drive, running speed, and capacity for sustained concentration were all evaluated. Every time, she came in first. “We predicted from her lung capacity that she could have ended up the European champion in the 1,500 meters,” German sport psychologist Wolfgang Schneider said to Epstein.

Tennis was the sport that Graf dedicated her immense abilities, willpower, lung capacity, and competitive drive to, whether she chose it or it was forced upon her. Peter, her father, was an insurance salesman and former football player who discovered tennis at the comparatively late age of 27, having never played the sport before. However, he was quickly tempted, leaving his work to become a teacher and run the neighbourhood tennis club in the Rhineland town of Bruhl. Peter was quick to declare his daughter a potential champion after she was born in 1969.