Jaden Agassi, son of tennis legends Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf, works to make mark in baseball

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — It's not the least bit surprising that Jaden Agassi—son of tennis legends Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf—had a racquet in his hand from the time he could walk.

The little boy loved to run. He loved to hit the ball. The problem was accuracy wasn't his thing.

"It was hard for me to keep the ball in the lines," Agassi said, laughing. "I just wanted to hit it as far as I could."

So his parents signed him up for baseball. About 20 years later, he's trying to make his own mark in the sports world.

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The 23-year-old Agassi is a pitcher for Team Germany in this week's World Baseball Classic qualifiers in Tucson, Arizona. The right-hander grew up in Las Vegas with his famous American dad and German mother before playing college baseball at USC. He holds dual citizenship and speaks a little German.

The popularity of baseball has grown in Germany over the past few decades, but manager Jendrick Speer was still searching for a few additions to the roster for the WBC qualifiers when he stumbled across Agassi on social media and realized his connections to the country.

"I found him because he's a good baseball player," Speer said. "With all the technology out there, we found him while researching and discovered that he had played in college and had citizenship. It worked out great and he's a great guy."

Growing up in the Las Vegas area, Agassi was right in the middle of a baseball hotbed. The metro has produced recent MLB standouts like Bryce Harper, Kris Bryant, Bryson Stott, Paul Sewald, Joey Gallo and Tyler Anderson.

Agassi said his parents never pushed him into tennis, baseball or any other sport because they didn't want to repeat their childhood and teenage years, which were totally consumed by tennis. Instead, he had a relatively normal upbringing and naturally gravitated toward the baseball diamond.

The lanky 6-foot-3 Agassi has had his share of setbacks during his baseball career. He needed Tommy John elbow surgery after his first game in 2019, which caused him to miss his junior season in high school. Then in 2020, his team played just a handful of games before COVID-19 shut down sports for the year.

"It almost worked as a blessing in disguise," Agassi said. "I got almost two years to rehab my Tommy John, came back strong and then started my college career at USC."

His three seasons with the Trojans were a little up-and-down. He had a solid year as a sophomore with a 3-2 record and a 4.34 ERA, but after a coaching change, he regressed as a junior with a 9.70 ERA.

He found his footing again in MLB's draft league last summer with a 2.96 ERA and 28 strikeouts over 27 1/3 innings. Now he's hoping to latch on to an MLB organization once the WBC qualifiers are over. His stint with Team Germany—which will likely include a bullpen role—is another chance for him to showcase his mid-90s fastball.

"It felt good to find some things that work for me," Agassi said. "Stick on a plan and get one percent better every day."

Agassi doesn't mind that people often ask about his parents or why he doesn't play tennis. His mom won 22 Grand Slam titles while his dad won eight Grand Slams and one of the younger Agassi's first childhood memories is hugging his dad on the court after he got a big win late in his career.

While neither parent may be a baseball expert, he said they're both supportive of his baseball career and will be in the crowd this week as he pitches for mom's home country with Team Deutschland across his chest.

"As a kid, you're kind of oblivious to the world," Agassi said. "It felt completely normal to me. I got a lot of knowledge and lessons learned from them. Picked up a lot of things and it's been a blessing."

By DAVID BRANDT