Andre Agassi and Boris Becker were among two of the most recognisable faces in tennis during the 1980s and 1990s.
The two shared a rivalry that saw them meet five times in Grand Slam semi-finals, and a further quarter final.
It made for some glorious matches, but was somewhat lopsided in favour of the American Agassi.
He won 10 of their 14 meetings, having been beaten in their opening three encounters by Becker.
Becker was one of Agassi’s victim’s at Wimbledon in 1992 where he went on to claim his maiden Grand Slam title.
And the secret to his success? It was something remarkably simple .
“Boris Becker who beat [me] the first three times we played because his serve was something the game had never seen before,” Agassi said in an interview with The Players Tribune’s Unscriptd.
“Well, I watched tape after tape of him and stood across the net from him three different times and I started to realise he has this weird tick with his tongue.
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“I’m not kidding, he would go into his rocking motion, his same routine and just as he was about to toss the ball, he would stick his tongue out.
“And it would either be right in the middle of his lip or it’d be to the left corner of his lip.
“If he’s serving in the deuce court and he put his tongue in the middle of his lip, he was either serving up the middle or to the body. But if he put it to the side, he was going to serve out wide.”
Agassi exploited this unusual tick well and did not let on to Becker that he knew, only losing once in their final 11 meetings.
“The hardest part wasn’t returning his serve — it was not letting him know that I knew this,” he recalled. “I had to resist the temptation of reading his serve for the majority of the match and choose the moment when I was gonna use that information on a given point to execute a shot that would allow me to break the match open.”
It was not until after Agassi retired where he gave away to Becker that he knew how to read his serve.
“We went out and had a pint of beer together [at Oktoberfest], and I couldn’t help but say, ‘By the way, did you know you used to do this and give away your serve?’
“He about fell off the chair. He said, ‘I used to go home all the time and just tell my wife, it’s like he reads my mind.’
“He said, ‘Little did I know, you were just reading my tongue.'”
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