Keystone
25 years later Andre Agassi explains how then he managed to read the most powerful serve on the circuit and thus put ‘Boom Boom’ Becker in check.
It was one of the most beautiful rivalries in tennis. Let’s talk about the challenges between the German Boris Becker and the American Andre Agassi. At the turn of the nineties, together with Pete Sampras, Stefan Edberg and Pat Rafter the two gave great moments of tennis.
The first challenge between the two dates back to 1988, when in Indian Wells, the then 21-year-old German champion beat the 18-year-old American talent in three sets. Two more challenges followed in 1989, again won by ‘Boom Boom’ Becker.
The two met again on the fields – as opponents – another 11 times, all won by the American rebel, who granted the big German boy one last victory at Wimbledon, in 1995 in the semifinals.
Years later Andre Agassi explained how it was possible to beat the German champion regularly, and above all, how he managed to eliminate his most lethal weapon: the serve.
It is to the ‘The Players’ Tribune Unscriptd’ platform that Andre Agassi has entrusted his testimony.
The Players’ Tribune Unscriptd is a multimedia platform created in Derek Jeter – former professional baseball player – where stories, videos and interviews with great exes of the world of sport are collected to allow their fans to feel more in contact with their idols – this according to what its creator explains -.
But let’s go back to Andre Agassi, who we remember won 8 Grand Slam tournaments in his career.
“Tennis consists above all in the ability to solve problems – the American attacked in his interview – and you cannot solve them unless you have the ability to read the environment around you”.
The language that Becker betrayed
An ‘inspirational’ message from Agassi, addressed to everyone: «The more you understand what the problem consists of, the more you are able to solve it, in life as well as in work. Take for example Boris Becker, who beat me the first three times we met because of a serve that had never been seen before in tennis. I looked through the tapes of those games and finally realized that he had a tic with his tongue. I’m not kidding – continued the one who married the divine Stefi Graf in 2001 – began his oscillatory movement, always the same, and while he was about to throw the ball he pulled out his tongue, and directed exactly where he would put the ball: when he hit. from the right and put his tongue between his lips, pulled either to the center or to the body; if he put it to one side it served to go out. “
Do not reveal the find to his opponent
But the hardest part – according to Agassi himself – was not so much discovering the opponent’s tic, but resisting the temptation to let him know that he had discovered it.
“I had to choose the most suitable moment in which to use this information to execute a shot that would allow me to take the break.”
“Imagine if I thought you were simply reading my language”
The 51-year-old former tennis player then said he revealed his secret to his rival, years later, during a drink at the Oktoberfest, in Germany: “You know you did this thing and so you threw away the service because I had it I got it?”.
It seems that Becker almost fell off his chair: “And I was going home after yet another defeat against you (Agassi) and saying to my wife: it’s as if she was reading my mind.”
