Jaden Agassi is the son of tennis greats Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf, who have a combined two gold medals and 30 major titles between the two. “It’s funny, my dad always says he’s not even the best tennis player in his own house,” Agassi said. It can be a tall task having the last name Agassi, combined with your mother being Steffi Graf.
“I want to say right around middle school kind of just people asking me, and it just kind of became more of a reality,” Agassi said. But unlike his legendary parents, Agassi is not on the tennis court, rather, he’s taking the mound this summer for the Scrappers in the MLB Draft League. “That’s kind of the goal. Agassi is a very tennis last name, of course. The goal is to try to make it a baseball one,” Agassi said.
After three years with the University of Southern California baseball program, he’s started that process through two starts: striking out eight batters through seven innings and posting a 1.29 earned run average. Plus, he is still able to lean on his parents in any aspect of athletics, who have an insane amount of success. “They’ve been through it, obviously in a different sport, but they’ve seen it all and done it all,” Agassi said. “They’ve been a huge help, absolutely.”
Despite missing out on the prime years of Graf’s 22 majors and only Golden Slam in tennis history, winning all four majors and a gold medal in the same year, Jaden Agassi was able to catch his dad claim an Australian Open title in 2003 and plenty other early moments. “I guess my earliest memory would be I want to say it was the US Open,” Agassi said. “I forget what year it was, but I just remember my dad won a match, and I just remember my mom letting me go around on the court, giving him a big hug.”
To most, they are a pair of former world #1 players and tennis hall of famers with more than 1,770 career singles wins but to Jaden, they are just mom and dad. “They help me out in so many ways I couldn’t even name, but they’re a great resource,” Agassi said. Now here in the Valley, Jaden is the one signing the autographs for the fans after years of watching his parents do the same.
“The support that the scrappers get is just unbelievable, and I love it,” Agassi said. “We’ve signed autographs, giving little balls to little kids and it’s awesome, it’s special, I’ll tell you that much.” After sweeping the State College Spikes at Eastwood Field this past week, the Scrappers (6-3) will hit the road for a three-game road trip against the Trenton Thunder before returning home on June 18 and 19.
