Andre Agassi had cracked the code to Boris Becker’s huge serve that helped him dominate their rivalry
In an interview in 2017, Andre Agassi revealed how he spotted a tell in Boris Becker’s service motion that involved his rival’s tongue.
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Andre Agassi, Boris Becker
Tennis legends Andre Agassi and Boris Becker were among the two most dominant players in the 1980s and 1990s. On one hand, Agassi was the most stylish player of his generation. And on the other, Becker was known for his bullet-paced serve that earned him the nickname of ‘Boom Boom’.
Together they created one of the most thrilling rivalries of their time. After losing the first three matches against Becker, the American star dominated their head-to-head 10-4. Still, every time the duo met, they produced glorious encounters that attracted huge media attention.
But it was not all about the physical skills of Agassi that helped him dominate Becker. In an interview in 2017, the eight-time Grand Slam champion revealed how he spotted a tell in Becker’s service motion that involved his rival’s tongue.
“I started to realize he had this weird tick with his tongue,” Agassi told Unscripted in 2017. “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,” he further revealed about his jackpot discovery.
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Andre Agassi eventually told Boris Becker about his lip reading as they shared a laugh together
Agassi proved to be right as he managed to challenge Becker’s much-feared serve. But that’s not all. Like a seasoned spy, Agassi realized that more than cracking the code it was important to not let Becker know about that.
“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.”
Later, the American told Becker how he managed to break the code of the German rival. But not before his retirement. “We went out and had a pint of beer together, and I couldn’t help but say: ‘By the way, did you know you used to do this and give away your serve?’, he said.
Becker was shocked by the big reveal but at the same time could not control his laughter. “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. Little did I know, you were just reading my tongue,”’ Agassi remembered the incident.
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