Talk with Stefanie Graf & André Agassi

Well, to stand on court together as a couple, for normal couples, this is quite a tricky thing, because there are huge potential for misunderstandings. How is it for you? Yes, doubles has brought an end to many relationships, so we've got to be very careful. Are there misunderstandings? No, not really. No, not really. I mean, you know, I would say we're not as no. Oh, the ambitious has disappeared a long time ago. But no, when we get out there now, it's just about enjoying it and having fun and hopefully entertaining. And you are training a few hours if you have something going on like this? Yeah, you wake your body up for a number of weeks and get back into it and remind yourself a few things, but just so you can come out and feel good and obviously make it work. You mentioned that before today, if you're going on court, it's all about having fun, but not only, it's also fundraising for your charity projects. How important is that for you? It's very important. Obviously, with not being, you know, I started my foundation before the end of my career. I was towards the end of my career. Something I'm really passionate about, helping traumatized children, traumatized war, violence and persecution. So it's been it's been taken over now that I don't play anymore, much more of my time. And it's and obviously I have a chance to dedicate myself more and more to it. So being able to come here today and knowing I go out there, you know, what that means for the children who are trying to help this means a lot to me. This is kind of your second job now, being here and giving back to children what life has given to you. Well, I think so. I mean, I think people share this in common. Long before we even met, we cared about making a difference in children's lives. There's something very pure about a child and for them not to have a future that is in their hands is really a crime. And we've got to invest in our future and we've got to change these dynamics. And mine is in education. And you heard what Steffi is about. But it's great when these moments happen like this here in Zug, because you've got something we've done our whole life overlapping with something we'll give our whole the rest of our life to. And it's a win for everybody. Nobody's here to expect great things, but they're here to reminisce and to feel good for a few minutes. And we can provide that and the children can win as a result. And so it's a it's a great day. There is another nice moment we have here on tape. It's an exhibition you played with children or a charity event. That's heartwarming. But there are also moments which are rather heartbreaking. Yeah. If you're working with these traumatized children, you know, hearing the stories of children growing up in war-torn areas and leaving their country and even on their refuge experiencing some terrible, terrible moments, you know, to be able to just help a little bit is nothing. But this this obviously was different. You say these stories are sometimes too hard for you to listen to. It is. I mean, listen, I think it takes a unique capacity to do what Steffi does. You know, what she does is she she gets in the mix of these children's lives, you know, their emotions and what's deep inside. You know, for me in providing education, the hardest part is the kids. I can't help the kids, you know, that our school is full and we were waiting for there's a waiting list to get in, you know, so that's a different sort of problem. But what she does is amazing. And I don't think I could do it because I think it'd just be that it'd be that difficult for me. We have an interview you've given in Zurich a few years ago, 1987. Oh, that's that's quite a few years. You've been 18, but you knew already back then how blessed you are. It seems like this. That was with 18 years. Yeah. Did you already know what you want to do one day? You know, I think it's eye opening for us as tennis players. We get to travel the world and clearly we understand that, especially in the main cities, you know, it's a different life and the places where we go. But we do see a lot of parts in the world that you clearly see that they have no chance. And there's so much hardship that you do feel like you want to give a little bit back as well. Did you realize that so early as well? Yeah, I think I did. And I did as a teenager. I always had this feeling that if I was ever successful, you know, what would I really want to do? And and the truth is, I'd want to affect somebody that felt the way I did. You know, I never had an education and I was lucky to be good at tennis. And so I think I always knew I wanted to help kids. You know, I started at 23 years old with my foundation. So from that day forward, it was a number of different things I helped as far as children go in a number of different ways. But you get more and more specific and you get leaner and you get leaner and you get clearer and you get clearer. And eventually you know exactly what it is that you care about. Your careers have been very emotional. It was an intense time. If we're going back to the archive, there's one picture. Yeah, it's back in 99. And I guess that was one of the most emotional moments of your career. A lot of difficult time with injuries and questioning if I should still be playing or not. And having a tough beginning of the year, I had a big knee surgery and didn't really expect to be coming back to tennis and then get to Paris and wasn't expected to do too well and and get to the finals and come back against Martina Hingis. Yeah. And I'm a very memorable man. I wasn't so sure which scene to pick of your career, but I guess it must be a scene of your Stephanie era. Well, listen, this was a special year for both of us for a lot of reasons. Yeah, of course. But this tournament in particularly was on the court one of my greatest memories for sure. And then, you know, the latter part of this year was when we found each other and life took on a whole new a whole new dimension. So you could say that maybe there was destiny in some of it. But from this day forward, there was no more regrets in life for a lot of reasons. We wanted to know the real truth about how you two met. So we went to talk with Heinz Günther. Let's hear what he's saying. Brad Gilbert, the coach of Andre at the time, asked me if I couldn't possibly arrange a meeting between the two since Andre liked her very much. And I said, this is very easy to do. All you need to do is book a practice court the hour before I book it and we book it tomorrow at three. And when we arrive, I will take my time to put my tennis shoes on. So the two of them have time to play a little bit of tennis and who knows where it will lead. So they made the first time in that way, the most natural way to tennis players can meet on the tennis court. That sounds very easy. Was it so easy for you? No, no, it wasn't so easy. But we had fun. Heinz, he's been such a great influence in Steph's life and certainly in her career. And I understand why, you know, in this process with trying to meet her because he leads her as a coach but also protects her. So he was not too sure about me in the beginning. But eventually, eventually he showed some, he warmed up and when he did then it made it a lot easier. Andre had his wild years at that time. Did you ever think of getting married one day to this guy? I wish I would have known. That would have helped in a lot of ways. But no, I think I never knew that I wanted to get married. I had no idea that that was not in my plans. Not till 99. Even when we met, you know, we were talking about children and marriage and I was like no. Then you got together and you already mentioned that there was also quite a lot of suffering. I remember reading your autobiography, the moment where you were lying on the ground in a hotel suite with your pain in your back. How hard was that? Well, tennis comes with, like Steph was talking about earlier, you know, it comes with a lot of emotional ups and emotional downs, a lot of physical accomplishments and physical, you know, difficulties. So we both lived a similar life, very extreme in these emotions and these physical sensitivities and it wasn't an easy time for me to play years after my body was telling me to stop. This was a negotiation every day with yourself physically. So that's another reason why it was so clear to kind of leave because sometimes you don't have a say. For years you tell your body what to do and then you get to a point where your body tells you what to do. Your children aren't the biggest tennis fans ever, huh? Well, our daughter plays a couple plays a week, but just for fun. She loves her dancing and our son loves his baseball. But that seems to be fine for you, you know? That's great. It's great to experience, you know, seeing them nurture something that they, us nurturing something that they enjoy. They're very active and they get very passionate about a lot of different things. You almost have to hold them back a little bit. You know, they, they really get into different sports, but it's all great to, you know, to be able to watch and guide them a little bit. You're leaving, you're living in Las Vegas. What's home for you, Las Vegas or Germany? Home is really clearly Las Vegas, but it's, you know, it's not really the place as you say it. I mean, it's literally who you're with and I'm very lucky to have my mom living in Las Vegas as well, as well as my brother and his four kids and him growing up there and being, you know, born and raised in Las Vegas with a lot of friends and obviously all of his side of the family. It's just pretty amazing to see our kids grow up in such a tight-knit family. Sure. We know that Stephanie likes Switzerland a lot. How about moving here one day? That'd be nice. Everybody seems very happy here. So happy to have you here. They figured something out here in Switzerland. One of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. I haven't had a great deal of time to spend here. I've spent a little bit of time in Basel over the years. I've been in and out of Zurich very quickly and the first time to Zug and it's, it's just incredibly stunning and the people could not be nicer. So it would be a close second to Las Vegas for me. But it doesn't sound like an option at the moment, huh? No. We hope you enjoy your time in Switzerland. Thank you very much for having you here.