absolutely amazing stuff. the close angles behind fed's back are quite something, shows you what the game really is like. we need those for every match. federer looks as good as he's ever in this match as well.
wow ..this was indeed a master class ....both federer and agassi hitting such beautiful shots off both wings from the baseline ...federer with the edge bcos of his added ability to play well at the net ...
What a high-quality match, and one that I hadn't seen highlights from! Thanks for sharing! What fire-power and control Roger used to have off his groundstrokes; it's truly remarkable. This is great evidence of how prime Roger would tear a prime Djokovic apart.
What a point and what a rally at 3:04 I wish these years hadn't been finished in tennis. This year especially was so boring... Being a huge fan of Federer I really love Agassi's game. Solid fluid strokes on both wings and superb shot making.
Believe it or not, Agassi was still contending for Masters Series titles and GS titles at this time! He was almost 35 in this match, played Federer at arguably his peak and still made him work, even though the scoreline may suggest otherwise. Agassi was one of the top guys for over 15 year. First GS title in 1992, last one in 2003, and you have to wonder if it wasn't for Fed in a lot of these tourneys, if Agassi could have won a couple more majors, USO 2005 comes to mind... Respect to baldy!
This reminds me of what someone told me. The game can be really close, but the difference in the score is determined by how well you play on those big points. You can play insanely good (as good as or even better than your opponent), but it means nothing if you can't take those big points. Some people are just better than others in those situations...
can't help but wonder about the matchup of this version of Federer with this year's Djokovic. And Agassi's shots (hitting the ball early and cleanly) were something to watch even if he lost the point.
Actually Agassi was famous for using a semi-western. Federer on the other hand was proven by FYB to use an Eastern forehand grip. John Yandell I think said Federer used a modified eastern grip
actually if you look at the where the base of his palm lies immediately after his shot, you can see its actually on the 4th bevel which means semi-western
we have federer,but i wish there was some one out there to push him to his limits like andre did. andre aggasi-roger federer,pushing tennis to the absalout limit. i think i dont have to tell you, the gratest ball strikers you you will ever see.
You'd have to think that Agassi's form even in this tournament in 2005 would probably dominate most of the ATP players even by today's standards with the exception of maybe Davydenko level baseliners. Agassi was definitely one of the best baseliners that ever played.
I'm impressed by how consistently low Fed's sliced BH's were in this match, they tend to float a little these days, perhaps the result of slightly diminished racket-head speed or players today hitting heavier topspin shots than in 2005, making it harder to control a sliced reply, not sure.
During Federer's prime in 06, Federer demonstrated the most lethal one-handed backhand in the Shanghai finals against James Blake. While I agree that Andre Agassi's backhand is definitely a more consistently better one than Federer's, I'd dare say that Federer's backhand during 06 is still the best that was ever 'witnessed'.
This is what i love from american or british commentators...they dont talk during the point...maybe a soft,short grunt which u can bearly hear.....but most of european or asian commentators they talk during,after,before non-stop!!
Believe it or not but roger's backhand seems way more solid than nowadays. I thought it had always been his weakness and that he had only managed to have it stable and effective a few years ago. But no! It seems it was really awesome back in the days!
@TheWindupDream he was hit off the court in the wimbledon final. djokovic has only had his number for less than a year now, that doesn't make him better or tougher overall. mentally and physically it's tough to find a better competitor, although he admits djokovic has got to him, it's only been a recent thing and only with one opponent, so for me he's still the toughest. his intensity is always super high and he shrugs off breaks like they never happened.
agassi is simply amazing at his age to be able to make federer work so hard. 35 year old man. waw!!! when i see murray playing, or djokovic or roddik they don't have 25% of agassis talent.either not sampras's talent the best 3 player ever 1)federer, 2) agassi and sampras
I've heard of Agassi's return of serve but never his bh. I've never watched a match of his and said nice backhand, it was always his fh that did damage.
overall though fed has better options on the backhand. pace-wise his isn't close to the fastest, but he can pass better than anyone off that wing, even at full stretch, and his slice is the best i've seen since rosewall. also he has had to learn to respond to people picking on his bh every shot and doesn't have too many errors and still manages to hit it deep, so that's even more to his credit. Because of its sheer pace and awesomeness though, I'd take Gasq's as my second choice!
he used to put a lot more of his body into the shots. in 2008 he struggled with lower back issues and mono, since then he has tried to put less of his body into the shots and relying on wrist snap alone.
Sampras has said himself that Federer is far greater than he ever was. Pete was pretty one-dimensional whereas Roger is the most diverse player ever. Fed has been the second best clay player in this era and would have more than 20 Slams if not for Nadal, the greatest clay courter ever. Pete could not even make one RG final.
@@TheRafaelBond that doesn't make any sense, Federer was making final after final in the slowest courts of the tour, Monte-Carlo and RG, and beating everyone on truly fast courts back then.
Being "on" or not doesn't really come to play here and backhands are usually the safer shot of the 2 for 2 handers. I think Safin's backhand by far is better than Agassi (Agassi doesn't hit many winners of that wing). His weapon is the FH. Marcelo Rios has an even deadlier BH than Agassi, though his FH was great as well. Djokovic & Murray both have decent backhands. Agassi was never known for his BH.
I agree with that roger has the perfect technique of pete and agassi's. But agassi wasn't just pure talent , he was after 1999, a really technical player too!!! watch the us open 2001 meeting vs sampras and AO 2000 semi final!!! Anyway The 3 players are complete players, bt roger is better then the 2 others . Agassi for exemple lack sometimes more presence in the net.
@TheWindupDream "vastly inferior"? stop trolling. fed didn't have too many five setters when he was dominating. basically the career slam ends any sampras>fed argument. plus i would like to have seen how sampras would do against nadal, esp on slower surfaces like most today, he wouldn't have any opportunity to choke because he'd be blown away.
@Samprasisthebest If only Andre had been a wise player when he was younger, you know, instead of the endorsement deals and the crazy clothes he wore... and things would be different if Andre won the 1995 US Open vs Pete, that to me, chnaged the whole outcome and Andre says it in is book on how it changed him.
@TheWindupDream i should stop feeding trolls like you. nadal has won on the us which is pretty much as fast as it was back then. i also can't remember him losing to a serve volleyer. federer is the better player on grass as well because his baseline game is better than anyone's and he can also s/v, beating sampras s/ving on 1st and 2nd serves for 5 sets when he was like 18 or something. also federer is the only player other than djokovic to beat nadal multiple times on clay.
@TheWindupDream federer may have only choked a bit of the US final, but del potro simply blasted the shit out of the ball after the 2nd set or so, he also beat nadal 6-2 6-2 6-2 so it wasn't flukey. sampras was great in the clutch, probalby the best server ever, but it's not like federer doesn't do the same, play top quality when he needs it. + djokovic has been hot for a year. that hardly makes him tougher overall than nadal.
you can see that agassi is not able to keep it up the speed of federer's game. the game is faster then in 90's , that's all and technically federer has better backhand, and volley.
I agree with most of what you said, but he has lost speed. Any fool can see that. 3:05 is a perfect example. He's still pretty fast today, but not as fast as that point shows.
@TheWindupDream look, nadal is the toughest player to ever walk on a fucking court, and he has the career slam and will probalby pass fed's slam count but definitely will pass sampras', even if he loses a leg to a landmine or something. It says a lot that fed never choked against his other rivals, nadal is simply too tough and a bad match up for him. but would be an even worse one for sampras. and don't say it like sampras never choked either, he did plenty.
i think safin can trouble roger more, safin's strokes are better than agassi. Agassi has only 1 trick which take the ball early, the other parts of his games are non-existent. He did the best in this technique. Djokovic has better ROS.
Safin only hit harder than Agassi and during Federer's best years he handled ballbashers amazingly well so I don't think it was anything really to do with the groundstrokes. Safin was just an all-around beast..huge serve, huge groundstrokes, great volleys, etc...plus, Agassi was in his 30s here anyways so it is kind of difficult to compare him to Marat who was playing at his best level earlier that year. Regardless, taking the ball early is a much more important ability than hitting hard which is partly the reason why both Federer and Agassi succeeded so much as they took so much time away from their opponents without forcing the issue which allowed them to stay consistent. Also, I definitely wouldn't say Marat had better groundstrokes than Andre, the backhand was perhaps pretty evenly matched and while Marat had a bigger forehand, Agassi had a more reliable one. Agassi also had the best swinging volleys and one of the best dropshots during his time too. As far as returning ability compared to Novak, that is also a tough one to compare.. Andre was being called the best returner while playing against serve and volleyers while Novak plays a lot of players with mediocre serves since most players today rely on their baseline games. I'm not saying Novak is a bad returner in anyway as I can agree he is right behind or perhaps equal to Agassi in that department, but if you look at his matches against like Roddick and Isner, his return kind of lets him down against huge servers.. Andre was still crushing returns in 2005! In fact, that shot alone allowed him to reach the USO final that year.
absolutely amazing stuff. the close angles behind fed's back are quite something, shows you what the game really is like. we need those for every match. federer looks as good as he's ever in this match as well.
wow ..this was indeed a master class ....both federer and agassi hitting such beautiful shots off both wings from the baseline ...federer with the edge bcos of his added ability to play well at the net ...
thanks for the video. great match.
i love the court view. shows how intense the pros (especially agassi and federer) play.
What a high-quality match, and one that I hadn't seen highlights from! Thanks for sharing! What fire-power and control Roger used to have off his groundstrokes; it's truly remarkable. This is great evidence of how prime Roger would tear a prime Djokovic apart.
Matt Clark prime fed beats djokovic all day long
What a point and what a rally at 3:04
I wish these years hadn't been finished in tennis. This year especially was so boring...
Being a huge fan of Federer I really love Agassi's game. Solid fluid strokes on both wings and superb shot making.
Believe it or not, Agassi was still contending for Masters Series titles and GS titles at this time! He was almost 35 in this match, played Federer at arguably his peak and still made him work, even though the scoreline may suggest otherwise. Agassi was one of the top guys for over 15 year. First GS title in 1992, last one in 2003, and you have to wonder if it wasn't for Fed in a lot of these tourneys, if Agassi could have won a couple more majors, USO 2005 comes to mind... Respect to baldy!
This reminds me of what someone told me. The game can be really close, but the difference in the score is determined by how well you play on those big points. You can play insanely good (as good as or even better than your opponent), but it means nothing if you can't take those big points. Some people are just better than others in those situations...
can't help but wonder about the matchup of this version of Federer with this year's Djokovic. And Agassi's shots (hitting the ball early and cleanly) were something to watch even if he lost the point.
Gotta love the court view. Thanks for that vid !
Actually Agassi was famous for using a semi-western. Federer on the other hand was proven by FYB to use an Eastern forehand grip. John Yandell I think said Federer used a modified eastern grip
actually if you look at the where the base of his palm lies immediately after his shot, you can see its actually on the 4th bevel which means semi-western
we have federer,but i wish there was some one out there to push him to his limits like andre did. andre aggasi-roger federer,pushing tennis to the absalout limit. i think i dont have to tell you, the gratest ball strikers you you will ever see.
You'd have to think that Agassi's form even in this tournament in 2005 would probably dominate most of the ATP players even by today's standards with the exception of maybe Davydenko level baseliners. Agassi was definitely one of the best baseliners that ever played.
I'm impressed by how consistently low Fed's sliced BH's were in this match, they tend to float a little these days, perhaps the result of slightly diminished racket-head speed or players today hitting heavier topspin shots than in 2005, making it harder to control a sliced reply, not sure.
During Federer's prime in 06, Federer demonstrated the most lethal one-handed backhand in the Shanghai finals against James Blake. While I agree that Andre Agassi's backhand is definitely a more consistently better one than Federer's, I'd dare say that Federer's backhand during 06 is still the best that was ever 'witnessed'.
This is what i love from american or british commentators...they dont talk during the point...maybe a soft,short grunt which u can bearly hear.....but most of european or asian commentators they talk during,after,before non-stop!!
federer had his best results in 2006 but i think the 2005 version was better
Indira Rodrigo why do you think he was better ??
Ertugrul Körpinar One reason. The forehand.
Me too
Great stuff, as always.
Believe it or not but roger's backhand seems way more solid than nowadays. I thought it had always been his weakness and that he had only managed to have it stable and effective a few years ago. But no! It seems it was really awesome back in the days!
because the video is about Federer, not Agassi.
thanks 4 uploading
I wish i was him. it looks so fun
This video should be called "How to Hit a One-Handed Backhand." Lots of those great court-level angles to see exactly what's happening.
I miss the days when Roger was this good
this was a 6-4 6-3 match to federer, but it had the talent and atmosphere of a 7-6 6-7 7-6 epic match.
@TheWindupDream he was hit off the court in the wimbledon final. djokovic has only had his number for less than a year now, that doesn't make him better or tougher overall. mentally and physically it's tough to find a better competitor, although he admits djokovic has got to him, it's only been a recent thing and only with one opponent, so for me he's still the toughest. his intensity is always super high and he shrugs off breaks like they never happened.
agassi is simply amazing at his age to be able to make federer work so hard.
35 year old man. waw!!! when i see murray playing, or djokovic or roddik they don't have 25% of agassis talent.either not sampras's talent the best 3 player ever 1)federer, 2) agassi and sampras
I've heard of Agassi's return of serve but never his bh. I've never watched a match of his and said nice backhand, it was always his fh that did damage.
overall though fed has better options on the backhand. pace-wise his isn't close to the fastest, but he can pass better than anyone off that wing, even at full stretch, and his slice is the best i've seen since rosewall. also he has had to learn to respond to people picking on his bh every shot and doesn't have too many errors and still manages to hit it deep, so that's even more to his credit.
Because of its sheer pace and awesomeness though, I'd take Gasq's as my second choice!
It's obbious from this video how much slower the game has gotten is a fairly short period of time.
I think that Federer using a heavy racket is wise, cause he is fit enough and technicaly the greatest!!!
1:52 - 2:26 jeez how many times do you see 27 shot rallies like that?!
I MISS THAT ROGER!!!
the 1:50 rally is sick
i love fed's shirt....
Anyone notice how Federer's forehand is far less wristy here compared to nowadays?
he used to put a lot more of his body into the shots. in 2008 he struggled with lower back issues and mono, since then he has tried to put less of his body into the shots and relying on wrist snap alone.
Aviral bajaj not true
thanks a lot
Sampras has said himself that Federer is far greater than he ever was. Pete was pretty one-dimensional whereas Roger is the most diverse player ever. Fed has been the second best clay player in this era and would have more than 20 Slams if not for Nadal, the greatest clay courter ever. Pete could not even make one RG final.
lol, someone doesnt know about homogenization.
Yeah that sucks
@@TheRafaelBond that doesn't make any sense, Federer was making final after final in the slowest courts of the tour, Monte-Carlo and RG, and beating everyone on truly fast courts back then.
wtf wheres this roger federer these days
@davd1986 Agassi should have won a lot more majors though in the 90s. He made up for it by winning 5 over 30.
roger is nº 1 for ever
Federer dominated Baseline player and S&V player.
look at those slices by fed at about 5:32
what a level
Being "on" or not doesn't really come to play here and backhands are usually the safer shot of the 2 for 2 handers. I think Safin's backhand by far is better than Agassi (Agassi doesn't hit many winners of that wing). His weapon is the FH. Marcelo Rios has an even deadlier BH than Agassi, though his FH was great as well. Djokovic & Murray both have decent backhands. Agassi was never known for his BH.
I agree with that roger has the perfect technique of pete and agassi's. But agassi wasn't just pure talent , he was after 1999, a really technical player too!!! watch the us open 2001 meeting vs sampras and AO 2000 semi final!!!
Anyway The 3 players are complete players, bt roger is better then the 2 others . Agassi for exemple lack sometimes more presence in the net.
@TheWindupDream "vastly inferior"? stop trolling. fed didn't have too many five setters when he was dominating. basically the career slam ends any sampras>fed argument. plus i would like to have seen how sampras would do against nadal, esp on slower surfaces like most today, he wouldn't have any opportunity to choke because he'd be blown away.
@Samprasisthebest look at the title mate
@Samprasisthebest
If only Andre had been a wise player when he was younger, you know, instead of the endorsement deals and the crazy clothes he wore...
and things would be different if Andre won the 1995 US Open vs Pete, that to me, chnaged the whole outcome and Andre says it in is book on how it changed him.
Continental
@letosvet1 Roger's BH now is almost better than his FH.
@TheWindupDream i should stop feeding trolls like you. nadal has won on the us which is pretty much as fast as it was back then. i also can't remember him losing to a serve volleyer.
federer is the better player on grass as well because his baseline game is better than anyone's and he can also s/v, beating sampras s/ving on 1st and 2nd serves for 5 sets when he was like 18 or something.
also federer is the only player other than djokovic to beat nadal multiple times on clay.
@TheWindupDream federer may have only choked a bit of the US final, but del potro simply blasted the shit out of the ball after the 2nd set or so, he also beat nadal 6-2 6-2 6-2 so it wasn't flukey.
sampras was great in the clutch, probalby the best server ever, but it's not like federer doesn't do the same, play top quality when he needs it.
+ djokovic has been hot for a year. that hardly makes him tougher overall than nadal.
I thought Andre was known for his fh back then? And his backhand is not the best of all time. Safin has an even better two hander.
Safin did...
@TheWindupDream and sampras' 14 would look lamer
Haha Agassi must have been like...Sampras was bad enough but this is the last thing I need!!!
Three, actually.
you can see that agassi is not able to keep it up the speed of federer's game. the game is faster then in 90's , that's all and technically federer has better backhand, and volley.
I agree with most of what you said, but he has lost speed. Any fool can see that. 3:05 is a perfect example. He's still pretty fast today, but not as fast as that point shows.
And it wasn't just TWO points :P
Actually Federer beat Rafa in the finals. Rafa beat him the year before in 2004.
@TheWindupDream look, nadal is the toughest player to ever walk on a fucking court, and he has the career slam and will probalby pass fed's slam count but definitely will pass sampras', even if he loses a leg to a landmine or something. It says a lot that fed never choked against his other rivals, nadal is simply too tough and a bad match up for him. but would be an even worse one for sampras.
and don't say it like sampras never choked either, he did plenty.
hardhitting
man agassi plays with no margin for error...basically no topspin
but if you say federer is the best then why is your name "Samprisisthebest"? :D
i think safin can trouble roger more, safin's strokes are better than agassi.
Agassi has only 1 trick which take the ball early, the other parts of his games are non-existent. He did the best in this technique.
Djokovic has better ROS.
Safin only hit harder than Agassi and during Federer's best years he handled ballbashers amazingly well so I don't think it was anything really to do with the groundstrokes. Safin was just an all-around beast..huge serve, huge groundstrokes, great volleys, etc...plus, Agassi was in his 30s here anyways so it is kind of difficult to compare him to Marat who was playing at his best level earlier that year.
Regardless, taking the ball early is a much more important ability than hitting hard which is partly the reason why both Federer and Agassi succeeded so much as they took so much time away from their opponents without forcing the issue which allowed them to stay consistent. Also, I definitely wouldn't say Marat had better groundstrokes than Andre, the backhand was perhaps pretty evenly matched and while Marat had a bigger forehand, Agassi had a more reliable one. Agassi also had the best swinging volleys and one of the best dropshots during his time too.
As far as returning ability compared to Novak, that is also a tough one to compare.. Andre was being called the best returner while playing against serve and volleyers while Novak plays a lot of players with mediocre serves since most players today rely on their baseline games. I'm not saying Novak is a bad returner in anyway as I can agree he is right behind or perhaps equal to Agassi in that department, but if you look at his matches against like Roddick and Isner, his return kind of lets him down against huge servers.. Andre was still crushing returns in 2005! In fact, that shot alone allowed him to reach the USO final that year.
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Hah the same Roger in this video was ass-kicked a day later by 17year old Rafa.