Andre Agassi reveals the secret trick he used to have which helped him beat Boris Becker on multiple occasions

Follow us on Google Discover

Andre Agassi and Boris Becker had one of the biggest rivalries on the ATP Tour in the 1990’s.

Agassi won eight major singles titles in his career, with half of those coming at the Australian Open.

His final Grand Slam title came in Melbourne in 2003, with Agassi retiring just three years later.

Nowadays Agassi is Laver Cup captain for Team World, and he also sometimes looks back on some of the many great moments throughout his career.

Andre Agassi reveals secret trick he used to beat Boris Becker

As previously mentioned, Becker was one of Agassi’s greatest rivals in a head-to-head that produced some thrilling matches over the years.

This rivalry is something that Agassi spoke about at the recent Arizona Tennis Classic, admitting that he found a secret trick to beat the German.

Agassi figured out that Becker moved his tongue during his service motion and could figure out what sort of serve he was about to hit.

However, the American was unable to find the courage to tell Becker about this trick until after he had retired.

“Tennis is interesting,” said Agassi. “There is only one shot in tennis that you control yourself and nobody else has a say and that’s the serve. Every other shot is dictated by court position, by pace, by strength and weaknesses.

“There is a lot of working compartments. But the serve is something that you practice in a silo, a bit like a golfer might go out and just stand over a ball and think about what they are going to do.

“One of the things that tends to happen in tennis when people serve in a silo is that people tend to get into routines and habits that kind of reflect what it is they are doing. There are tells, if you will.

“Boris had one but I discovered it because it was just odd. His tongue always did something weird. It always did. Remember how robotic it was? He would get to a certain part and his tongue would – it wouldn’t be that it would point – but it would either come out straight or he had this ability to roll the tongue, you could see it twist. So when he would roll it he was always cutting the ball and when he was sticking it straight he always going through the court, so the deuce court it was tee serve or body. If he rolled it it was a cut.

“In any case, the hardest part wasn’t reading his serve it was not letting him know that I could read it! Because I didn’t want him to go he is reading my serve and figure it out. I would rather him ace me 25 times and lose 5-4, I was like I need to win the right points. I read it for a long time and kept him from knowing it forever and swore one day I would look forward to telling him when he was retired.

“He took me to Oktoberfest when he was retired and I was with him and his wife at the time and my coach and I was going I can’t tell him now, it doesn’t seem right. He is hosting me. Then we had one beer and I was like, maybe I could tell him. Then it was like second beer goes down and I was like I have got to tell him. You have got to be honest, you can’t just sit here and I feel like I am living a lie. By the third beer it was like I’m telling him!

“So I told him and I said by the way you always did this thing with your tongue and he just stopped. He looked like a deer in the headlights. He took it like a champ and his wife just hit the table and started laughing so hard and she was like all the nights that you kept me up because all he would talk about was ‘the guy reads my mind, it’s like he reads my mind! And then you were just reading his tongue!’

“He is in denial about it, I know this for sure. Because we have mutual friends and what have you, and they say he is denying this. I said next time he denies this with you, make him admit that I was so much better than him I could beat him 10 times in a row not knowing where he was serving.

“He has the choice. He is either going to admit that I could read his serve or somehow say I was that much better! I guarantee you I was not that much better.”

Andre Agassi vs Boris Becker Head-to-head

This tactic is reflective in their head-to-head, where Becker won the first three matches against Agassi in 1988 and 1989.

After figuring out Becker’s serve, Agassi only lost one of their next nine meetings and was able to end their head-to-head with a 10-4 advantage.

They did not play against each other in any Grand Slam finals, but played semi-finals at Roland Garros, Wimbledon and the US Open.

Fittingly their final ever match came in the final of the Hong Kong Open in 1999, with Agassi beating Becker in what turned out to be the last final of his career.

No longer an active player, Agassi will now lead the likes of Ben Shelton, Taylor Fritz and Tommy Paul at the event in San Francisco later this year.