A brief break in the action during Friday’s Wimbledon semifinal between Carlos Alcaraz and Taylor Fritz brought a difference of opinion on what the talking point should be. Andre Agassi, serving as a color analyst for the BBC, wanted to talk about the match. Andrew Castle, his broadcast partner, wanted to talk about the Royal Box at Wimbledon’s Centre Court.
Agassi did little to hide his frustration.
It started innocently enough. Castle observed the Royal Box, saying, “It’s a lovely Royal Box there today. And this is obviously a great ticket for anybody.”
“But if I can just make one comment here, that’s short of a prediction,” Agassi said. “We saw Taylor go to another level of risk with his serve, which dropped his percentage, but then paid off for him. We saw him go to another level of risk with the backhand pace.”
Seeing that Castle had a point to make, Agassi ceded the floor to him.
“Well, I was just gonna say, that’s Elaine Paige,” Castle said. “She’s a musical theatre star. But she’s also president of the Dan Maskell Tennis Trust. They support disabled tennis very much.”
When Agassi remarked that he “can’t keep up,” Castle, who’s had some problems stargazing at Wimbledon, continued.
“Let’s test,” he said. “This is Andre Agassi, and this is ‘Guess the Royal Box Member.’ Let’s go and find someone else.”
“Don’t torture me,” a frustrated Agassi replied. “Let me finish my point. So he’s gone up on his wrist on his first serve, Taylor. He’s gone up on his wrist on the pace of his rally shots. He’s letting his forehand fire at will. So he has chosen his sort of, you know, poison pill. ‘This is how I have to play if I’m gonna win.’ The question is, how long can you really do it? And this is where I really believe in tennis.”
While this exchange was going on, BBC viewers saw occasional shots of the court. For the most part, though, they saw the people in the Royal Box that Castle was talking about. So, immediately after Agassi made his point about Fritz’s approach, Castle abruptly turned his attention back to the Royal Box.
“OK, that’s great,” Castle said in reply to Agassi. “Well, that was Nick Clegg, our former Deputy Prime Minister.”
“People watching are watching for tennis,” Agassi said. “Not for this.”
It’s tough not to side with Agassi here.
Make no mistake, the camera’s consistent focus on the Royal Box was probably a cue to Castle that that’s where his bosses wanted the attention to be. Assuming that’s true, he was a rock in a hard place. But regardless of whether that’s true, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to bring in Agassi, one of the greatest tennis players of all time, for commentary if his focus isn’t supposed to be on the tennis.