'My parents are Wimbledon champions - but I'm making debut in another sport at 23'

Jaden Agassi is determined to make his famous surname associated with another sport after joining Team Germany for the World Baseball Classic Qualifiers.

Being the son of two tennis icons, Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf, many would have assumed the 23-year-old would follow in their footsteps. His parents share a whopping 30 combined Grand Slam titles after dominating the sport for much of their careers, with Graf winning Wimbledon a whopping seven times while Agassi claimed his first major title in SW19.

Jaden picked up a tennis racket plenty of times too during his formative years but admitted he could never keep the ball in play. And, in contrast, he has always been drawn to baseball.

Having been born in Nevada, USA, the young Agassi has now chosen to represent his mother's homeland, Germany, in baseball. "Agassi is a very tennis last name, of course," he told WKBN News, via the Express. “The goal is to try to make it a baseball one."

In another interview with MLB.com, he explained: "I'm so excited [to play for Germany]. It's been a dream of mine since I was a little boy to compete on an international scale. [I want to] make my mum proud, make Germany proud and do them right."

Agassi has become a formidable pitcher and, despite his college stats not being overly impressive, he shone in the 2024 MLB Draft League. He posted a 2.96 earned run average and claimed the Player of the Week award on July 8.

He realised baseball was the only sport for him when he discovered that all he wanted to do was hit tennis balls as far as he could. "I started playing baseball when I was six years old in T-ball," he continued.

"I loved it. I've picked up a tennis racket a good amount, but it was always hard for me to keep that ball in between the lines. I just wanted to hit that thing as far as I could. Baseball had my love since day one.

"I entered college with the ability to be a decent pitcher, but I was a thrower. And because of lost time I was behind the eight ball. But at the University of Southern California I was blessed with some great coaches who began teaching me the art of pitching.”