Chris Evert’s ex-husband tells Carlos Alcaraz to build a personality like ‘Superstar’ Andre Agassi by partying with female celebrities to bring glamour in the sport

John Lloyd had a rather interesting bit of advice for the Spanish prodigy as he asked him to transcend his outlandish tennis skills.

Chris Evert’s ex-husband tells Carlos Alcaraz to build a personality like ‘Superstar’ Andre Agassi by partying with female celebrities to bring glamour in the sport

Carlos Alcaraz after winning Wimbledon 2023. (Source: Twitter)

Gone are the days when tennis players were supposed to be good at just tennis. With the commercialisation of the game in the modern era tennis players are expected to show glamour too. Former British tennis player and Chris Evert’s ex-husband John Lloyd took this a step further as he gave Carlos Alcaraz the herculean task of adopting former tennis great Andre Agassi’s social skills.

Andre Agassi is often credited for the increase in the popularity of tennis in the 90s. Although his return of serve was the best in the game, it wasn’t the main reason for tennis capturing eyeballs around the world. It was his relationship with American singer and entertainer Barbra Streisand that captured everyone’s attention. It didn’t end there as he had multiple affairs ending up in him marrying the tennis legend Steffi Graf. Owing to Agassi’s career John Lloyd in an interview remarked, “We need superstars like Andre Agassi. He was regularly spotted with female celebrities.”

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Further clarifying his position Lloyd said, “For me it just makes our sport… it just goes above the level that it’s at when you’ve got superstars that people that don’t even like tennis but like Agassi… he was a crossover star. Everybody knew Agassi because he was not just a great tennis player but because of his off-court activities as well.”

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The world number-1 who is currently competing in National Bank Canadian Open (Omnium Banque Nationale) in Montreal has his eyes firmly set on defending his US Open title. With an untiring resolve of improving his game, one would believe that Carlitos would treat Lloyd’s words at best with a bit of indifference.

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John Lloyd feels Nick Kyrgios could have been the new Andre Agassi

Nick Kyrgios
Nick Kyrgios (Credits: ATP tour)

Nick Kyrgios has been one of the biggest entertainers in tennis alongside Gael Monfils for the past decade. Gifted with extraordinary tennis skills Nick Kyrgios rose to fame after beating Rafael Nadal in the 4th round of Wimbledon 2014 championships. He has also had an interesting personal life as his affair with Canadian tennis player Eugenie Bouchard caught the media’s attention.

John Lloyd believed that Kyrgios could have been the new Agassi if he worked a bit on his tennis skills. Talking to the media Lloyd said,”Nick Kyrgios… I mean he’s taken now… but I think would have been some example of who would do that if it was made available to him but you see Nick hasn’t won enough matches… you’ve got to be a damn good player to do that otherwise people aren’t interested.”

In the age of social media, every movement of sports celebrities is keenly followed which makes it difficult for them to manage their media perception. Andre Agassi managed to balance his off-court time and image which lead to him transcending the sport of tennis in a way that Lloyd wishes Alcaraz would do.

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