Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf have now moved into their empty-nester era, and they’re making the most of it — with pickleball dates!
After 25 years of marriage (and kids in their 20s), Agassi and Graf are finding new ways to spend their time. While speaking to Luxury Handbag Shopping, Agassi said that the sport of pickleball has “filled a huge gap in our lives collectively.”
Since they are in a “different season of life” pickleball works for them where they’re at. “I mean when this game sort of originally caught on… everybody thinks it’s for old people and then it’s like it’s gotten so much younger so I feel like I can still get better at something, which is really cool.”
“But then to do it with her, it gives us a bonding experience,” Agassi added.
Pickleball is also more than something to do with Graf — on Saturday, April 12, Agassi hosted the first-ever Agassi Open Play Day at Life Time Green Valley in honor of National Pickleball Month. The event was also mirrored at more than 100 Life Time athletic clubs around the United States at the same time.
“It’s been growing like an anomaly here in America,” Agassi explained. “I don’t know of any sport that has ever covered this kind of territory in such a short period of time.”
Agassi, who is also chair of the Life Time Racquet Sports Board, was joined by Founder, Chairman and CEO Bahram Akradi of Life Time, Maroon 5 lead guitarist and pickleball enthusiast James Valentine, professional pickleball standout Ryan Sherry and 11-year-old pickleball phenom Jack Lowridge.
When Agassi and Graf aren’t playing pickleball, they also like to spend time with their kids and their respective partners, even going on triple dates! “We had a great date night the other night where it was me, Steffi, my son and Catherine, his girlfriend, and Jaz, our daughter, and her boyfriend Parker, and it was like a triple date and we all just went out and sat and talked,” he shared. “We feel like peers around them, we respect them, we seek their opinion on things, they’re not hesitant to ask us our perspective on what they’re going through, so it really feels like a healthy season in life.”
Though neither of their children have followed their parents into tennis stardom, their son Jaden, 23, is a star pitcher for USC. Agassi said that he doesn’t know if their oldest will play baseball professionally, but highlighted a few key differences between the sport and tennis. “Team sports, you know, they have to pull you along so he’s still hoping for his dreams and going after it and I respect him tremendously for it so hope the best for him, but he’s clear on what he wants to do,” he said.
With reporting by Rachel Smith
