I clearly remember how unimpressed I was about Andre Agassi in his early years when he used to play to the crowd and stupidly lose a lot of big matches. Even his interviews in those times were very shallow. At that time, he went through the Brook Shields marriage and a lot of other soul-searching situations like the change of his service action, his drop in the tennis rankings, his fitness and change of image into his eventual rejuvenation and return. I could not believe the difference in his intelligence and focus when he returned. Even today, when I think about Andre Agassi I always remember the way he overhauled his whole mentality to life and the game of tennis, his fitness and respect and appreciation for the fans. When he eventually hooked up with his wife, Steffi Graf, that soft-spoken gentle giant on the court, I knew it was almost like a perfect hook-up, I felt so happy for him. What a contrast to his early idiosyncrasies into a gracious humble, intelligent human being and one of the greatest tennis players of our times.
If you were given $6 million before you'd ever even played a pro match... how do you think you'd fare? Taking away someone's drive to excel is devastating. But yeah, he grew up, and we all benefited from it.
The only problem I have with Andre is his constant disrespect of Pete. Seems like he can't move on from Pete getting the better of him. Otherwise, he seems like a very deep, passionate and inspired soul.
I am more fascinated as to how I can be watching a video of Agassi speaking about watching videos of Becker to reveal his tell, without one clip of Becker demonstrating this.
Exactly. Now I have to start looking up videos trying to see Boris’ tongue while serving. Seriously whoever made this video could have helped us out lol!
Agassi was definitely in his head. I remember watching a lot of matches between them. You always knew Becker was losing it when he started talking to himself in German.
Too bad they didn’t ALL the finals at the Aussie Open where Andre owned Pete !! Not to mention Sampras NEVER came close to the French title !! Only people like you bring Sampras up all of his records have been shattered by 3 different players ! Distant memory is Pete !!
I loved this dude when he played Rock Star with the hair and tossing his shirts to the crowd. Then he switched gears and started winning. What a great asset to the game he has been.
What a cool story. These two guys (and a few others...) brought tennis to a level that made our family rush to the best seat of the couch. We knew there would be suspense, fun and passion. It was like going to the movies. For about 10 years, this dream team shot tennis to the clouds and brought kids and seniors together around the world. It wasnt just a game for us. It was a family affair. These were the golden years of tennis and I am happy I was a part of...even from the couch.
You are so right! Especially about bringing kids and seniors together. Whenever I think of tennis or see Wimbledon on TV, I remember sitting on the couch with my Grandad watching McEnroe, Becker, Agassi and others. There's definitely something special about those times. My memories of my Grandad are so linked with Tennis and those guys.
Very observant on Agassi's part to notice that Boris Becker gave away the direction of his serve by pointing his tongue in the direction he would hit the serve. It is amazing that both Becker's coach Gunther Bosch and his businrss manager Ion Tiriac failed to notice that and tell Boris to stop sticking his tongue out when he served so as to not tip off opponents as to the direction of his serve. Of course, Agassi's noticing that tendency on Becker's part is no different than a baseball batter noticing an idiosyncrasy in a pitcher's motion or preparation to throw a pitch which tips off the batter as to the type of pitch the pitcher will throw or the direction of the pitch.
Excellent point, Belmer’s coach and trainer not picking up on the tell is huge, and Andre didn’t tell anyone other players. Incredible mental strength.
I follow tennis at a casual enough level to be dangerous (meaning, I have watched Borg, Connors, McEnroe, Evert, Sampras, Navratilova, Agassi, Becker, Williams, Williams, Lendl, Sampras, Federer, Nadal, Djokovic, et al) to appreciate that this level of candor and “inside” scoop is fascinating! Thank you for this insight.
I loved this. Not a big tennis watcher but I always rooted for Agassi. Him telling this story is so funny. I wonder if anyone else picked up the tongue tell ?
Andre is being humble here. This tell didn't help him win his own service games or to win points after Boris hit his return of serve back. And Andre won more points without that tongue tell. He also did it against McEnroe without such a tell. So it has to be kept in perspective. He would have won without it too, I think.
If he was the greatest returner as you say how come and Pete Sampras dominated almost all the time......? It seems to me The greatest returner of all times NJ is dominating Tennis for a a long time now.
@ Nicholas: because Sampras had the greatest serve of all time But step outside a super fast court and that weapon was less and Agassi ate him up.Agassi will always be a more complete player than Sampras who never even came close at the French. But on fast courts the Sampras serve was unbeatable .
Lol. That's funny. And it makes sense to not break his serve at will. Because if he were to show that every time Becker serves, that he could return every single one, Becker might actually investigate himself to see what was going on. If he discovered it, he'd then throw Agassi for a loop. Because he'd probably use that against Agassi. Funny that Roddick mentioned something similar with Federer. Federer would use the distinctive aspect of his serve to sneak some aces past him. When Roddick finally countered, he mentioned that Federer gave him that look that says, "Oh. So you now know." Lol
Funny how life works. Early in his career Agassi couldn’t shake the “overrated” tag. He became so professional, so workmanlike (i.e. winning the French as a 29 yr-old, or grinding up far younger players at the Aussie 3 out of 4 years) later in his career though that he suddenly got taken for granted. You see all the greats today taking the ball early, and wearing out the baseline at Wimbledon- or Djokovic’s return of serve- and you know Agassi’s fingerprints are all over the modern game though. Critically important player to the evolution of the game.
At elite level, every move you perfected will be scrutinized under microscope. Countermeasures will be devised and repeatedly drilled into perfection. This is extraordinary that Agassi would purposefully concede points to keep a secret.
Agassi's book called Open is probably the best book that you'll ever read about tennis. His father was borderline abusive to him growing up, forcing him to play tennis every day for hours. That's why Agassi has often said that he hates tennis, despite all of his success. Really eye-opening.
The Agassi match I remember was in the french open final, he was playing Medvedev and Medvedev crushed Agassi for 2 sets, it wasn't even a match and in the 3rd set, Agassi started coming back. It was almost like watching Ali, I'll let you ware yourself out and then I'll start trying. Its too bad Agassi's back went out on him, he was an excellent player and good for the game.
If it hadn't rained, and his coach had time to scream black and blue at him in the locker room, he may never have won that. It was Agassi's own fault too, he trained Medvedev some after Med was going to quit a few years earlier, and gave away a lot of his secrets.
masters of various racket sports have gone through these tiny little observations of an opponent that become game changers. 360 degree acute awareness skills. brilliant
Definately took that side of poker and tells and applied it. Not saying it would’ve have come from a different region geography, but the coincidence might not be. Might be exactly from someone in Vegas to look for body tells in tennis
Brilliant move to only selectively read Becker's tell. It would have been tempting to just destroy Becker's serve, but that likely would have led Becker to investigate how he was anticipating him so well.
The real lesson here is that actually Boris deep down knew something was up and that he felt Agassi was reading his mind. But, didn't listen to his gut and dig deeper into what was going on!
He just had good sight, having good sight helps when you're a tennis player. Also when you have been looking at the other side of the net for the past 2 hours, your eyes get used to it. Especially if you've been doing it for several years.
Great story. I remember a similar one. During WW2 Brits broke enigma (nazi’s cryptographic machine). Now, they could predict attacks and follow all nazi’s navy. So, the hardest part was to let go some attacks of nazi’s submarines and let a whole bunch of people die in order not to compromise their knowledge and do not let germans figure out that the enigma code was broken. Otherwise they would have simply changed all the codes in the navy and the British intelligence would have to start everything from the square one. They develop a very complex statistical model and they used it to counter-attack germans only at the specific events. Which finally let the Brits to break the nazi navy’s spine, but at the same time, protected to secret.
Maybe. Of course it helps to be one of the best returners to ever play. Tongue-tell or not. Agassi was probably reading all of the body positions, toss, racquet position, etc. And it was probably instinctive.
Agassi, McEnroe, and Connors were my three favorite tennis players growing up. I have a lot of respect for the greatness of Federer, Nadal, and Djokovic, but I LOVED tennis back in the 1980s and 1990s because Agassi, McEnroe, and Connors were just rock stars.
Whaaaat?? Eagle eye! I just came back from future...Steffi best wife ever! If you want a great "read" check out Andre's autobiography...he's the sibling who made it! And survived Brooke!
@@nicolasbouyiouclis4726 If everyone in the tennis community that matters, say that he's the greatest returner of all time, it starts to become fact. Who was a better returner than him? Nadal,Sampras,and Federer are the only ones that come close...in my opinion.
@@kawasakiwhiptwo5821 you can have your opinion and I respect it, but the fact is that to many of the great tennis players have said that NJ has sure passed anyone else to this day!
Me too. This would mean nobody in Becker’s camp cared enough to try to determine how Agassi was able to “read his mind”. I find it surprising that a top athlete like Becker wouldn’t have a team of people helping with his strategy, which would have included his mannerisms on the court, especially during a serve. I’m assuming top soccer players’ videos are reviewed for their penalty shots.
Nice one!!....means there are others he has used this observation on and for those that have clicks in their games..are on the losing side fr their h2heads
Agassi was born and raised in Vegas. He spotted Becker's tell.
I can't believe this guy was a tennis champion, owns the UFC and sings for Disturbed in one lifetime. Inspirational.
And is married to Steffi Graff!
Loool made my morning thank you😆
@@izzonj Married to Steffi Graff is a good thing? 🥱
Haha.... well played
And beat GSP to become the WW Champ
Enjoying a beer at Octoberfest in Germany with Boris Becker would be a pretty righteous experience.
No doubt. He seems like such a classy guy, and I am sure he has some pretty good stories.
Never let the enemy know you've broken their cipher.
I clearly remember how unimpressed I was about Andre Agassi in his early years when he used to play to the crowd and stupidly lose a lot of big matches. Even his interviews in those times were very shallow. At that time, he went through the Brook Shields marriage and a lot of other soul-searching situations like the change of his service action, his drop in the tennis rankings, his fitness and change of image into his eventual rejuvenation and return. I could not believe the difference in his intelligence and focus when he returned. Even today, when I think about Andre Agassi I always remember the way he overhauled his whole mentality to life and the game of tennis, his fitness and respect and appreciation for the fans. When he eventually hooked up with his wife, Steffi Graf, that soft-spoken gentle giant on the court, I knew it was almost like a perfect hook-up, I felt so happy for him. What a contrast to his early idiosyncrasies into a gracious humble, intelligent human being and one of the greatest tennis players of our times.
If you were given $6 million before you'd ever even played a pro match... how do you think you'd fare? Taking away someone's drive to excel is devastating. But yeah, he grew up, and we all benefited from it.
The only problem I have with Andre is his constant disrespect of Pete. Seems like he can't move on from Pete getting the better of him. Otherwise, he seems like a very deep, passionate and inspired soul.
That level of mastery is just so amazing.
Really is.
This is BATMAN level detective work.
I am more fascinated as to how I can be watching a video of Agassi speaking about watching videos of Becker to reveal his tell, without one clip of Becker demonstrating this.
Exactly. Now I have to start looking up videos trying to see Boris’ tongue while serving. Seriously whoever made this video could have helped us out lol!
probably fear of dmca n shit
@@gurujojo8992 You are a sick person.
@@shauns5680 They were too busy trying to find just the right annoying plinky-plonk background music.
@@gurujojo8992 you are obviously a sad little man
Agassi was definitely in his head. I remember watching a lot of matches between them. You always knew Becker was losing it when he started talking to himself in German.
Bro my dad was a huge tennis fan and he used to say “nothing ever good happens when a German starts getting mad and pacing back and forth.”
Too bad Pete didn't stick out his tongue.
Too bad they didn’t ALL the finals at the Aussie Open where Andre owned Pete !! Not to mention Sampras NEVER came close to the French title !! Only people like you bring Sampras up all of his records have been shattered by 3 different players ! Distant memory is Pete !!
he did actually, maybe Andre didn't noticed...
@@johnadams1715 Sampras always beat Agassi. Sampras is one of the best player ever after Federer or equal...you don't know what you're talking about
@@bbsoni4814 Obviously not "always". Agassi won 14 of their H2Hs against Sampras's 20.
U kidding? He stuck his tongue out constantly
I loved this dude when he played Rock Star with the hair and tossing his shirts to the crowd. Then he switched gears and started winning. What a great asset to the game he has been.
What a cool story. These two guys (and a few others...) brought tennis to a level that made our family rush to the best seat of the couch. We knew there would be suspense, fun and passion. It was like going to the movies. For about 10 years, this dream team shot tennis to the clouds and brought kids and seniors together around the world. It wasnt just a game for us. It was a family affair. These were the golden years of tennis and I am happy I was a part of...even from the couch.
You are so right! Especially about bringing kids and seniors together. Whenever I think of tennis or see Wimbledon on TV, I remember sitting on the couch with my Grandad watching McEnroe, Becker, Agassi and others. There's definitely something special about those times. My memories of my Grandad are so linked with Tennis and those guys.
Still one of my favorite players ever, Andre Agassi. Thanks for sharing; loved your book as well
When Jordan put his tongue out you knew he was gonna dunk. Nothing you could do about that though ;)
When Jordan stuck out his tongue, that's when people knew when to get the f*ck out of the way:)
Great story.
Also, loved your cover of ”Sound of Silence”.
I think you're confusing him with his gay brother. He doesn't have the left ear piercings.
lol
What a story ! Truly out of the ordinary
This will forever be the best tennis story.
all i wish is to turn back the time. beautiful years!
Brilliant story. Two legendary players, when tennis was tennis.
Fascinating! Talent is not only about hitting the ball Andre has a mind of his own and one of a kind! Thanks for sharing!
Very observant on Agassi's part to notice that Boris Becker gave away the direction of his serve by pointing his tongue in the direction he would hit the serve. It is amazing that both Becker's coach Gunther Bosch and his businrss manager Ion Tiriac failed to notice that and tell Boris to stop sticking his tongue out when he served so as to not tip off opponents as to the direction of his serve. Of course, Agassi's noticing that tendency on Becker's part is no different than a baseball batter noticing an idiosyncrasy in a pitcher's motion or preparation to throw a pitch which tips off the batter as to the type of pitch the pitcher will throw or the direction of the pitch.
Excellent point, Belmer’s coach and trainer not picking up on the tell is huge, and Andre didn’t tell anyone other players. Incredible mental strength.
I met Andre once. He was an incredibly friendly, personable, down to earth guy.
Andre really had super-human sight to actually see Boris' tongue from over the baseline on the other side of the court. WOW!!!!
AS 1971 Boris had a huge... tongue
Or....Boris has a reeeeeeeeeeeeeeally long tongue
Andre also watched tapes with Boris playing
I follow tennis at a casual enough level to be dangerous (meaning, I have watched Borg, Connors, McEnroe, Evert, Sampras, Navratilova, Agassi, Becker, Williams, Williams, Lendl, Sampras, Federer, Nadal, Djokovic, et al) to appreciate that this level of candor and “inside” scoop is fascinating! Thank you for this insight.
I love you man. You got me into tennis. And my double backhand is all yours. Great youth memories.
I loved this. Not a big tennis watcher but I always rooted for Agassi. Him telling this story is so funny. I wonder if anyone else picked up the tongue tell ?
Incredible story. Also in his book.
so funny, and a valuable lesson
Andre is being humble here. This tell didn't help him win his own service games or to win points after Boris hit his return of serve back. And Andre won more points without that tongue tell. He also did it against McEnroe without such a tell. So it has to be kept in perspective. He would have won without it too, I think.
He was the greatest returner of serve in the game for a reason.
Was. Djoker has taken over that mantle. Longer reach.
If he was the greatest returner as you say how come and Pete Sampras dominated almost all the time......?
It seems to me The greatest returner of all times NJ is dominating Tennis for a a long time now.
@ Nicholas: because Sampras had the greatest serve of all time
But step outside a super fast court and that weapon was less and Agassi ate him up.Agassi will always be a more complete player than Sampras who never even came close at the French. But on fast courts the Sampras serve was unbeatable .
That's absolutely amazing!
Really interesting and exciting video. Those tennis-legends, they are just great.
Lol. That's funny. And it makes sense to not break his serve at will. Because if he were to show that every time Becker serves, that he could return every single one, Becker might actually investigate himself to see what was going on. If he discovered it, he'd then throw Agassi for a loop. Because he'd probably use that against Agassi.
Funny that Roddick mentioned something similar with Federer. Federer would use the distinctive aspect of his serve to sneak some aces past him. When Roddick finally countered, he mentioned that Federer gave him that look that says, "Oh. So you now know." Lol
Brilliant observation. Amazing how you came to figure that out. Good for you for being able to beat him with that knowledge.
Agassi was and is an underrated player. He revolutionized the sport.
Funny how life works. Early in his career Agassi couldn’t shake the “overrated” tag. He became so professional, so workmanlike (i.e. winning the French as a 29 yr-old, or grinding up far younger players at the Aussie 3 out of 4 years) later in his career though that he suddenly got taken for granted. You see all the greats today taking the ball early, and wearing out the baseline at Wimbledon- or Djokovic’s return of serve- and you know Agassi’s fingerprints are all over the modern game though. Critically important player to the evolution of the game.
You can tell Agassi is a very smart man. His vocabulary and eloquence is a step above.
At elite level, every move you perfected will be scrutinized under microscope. Countermeasures will be devised and repeatedly drilled into perfection. This is extraordinary that Agassi would purposefully concede points to keep a secret.
Agassi's book called Open is probably the best book that you'll ever read about tennis. His father was borderline abusive to him growing up, forcing him to play tennis every day for hours. That's why Agassi has often said that he hates tennis, despite all of his success. Really eye-opening.
Andre looks like Dana White.
Both say number one bullshit... 😂
Funny story from a very likable tennis star. Glad that Steffi & Agassi are making it work, hope it continues.
amazing biography
The Agassi match I remember was in the french open final, he was playing Medvedev and Medvedev crushed Agassi for 2 sets, it wasn't even a match and in the 3rd set, Agassi started coming back. It was almost like watching Ali, I'll let you ware yourself out and then I'll start trying. Its too bad Agassi's back went out on him, he was an excellent player and good for the game.
If it hadn't rained, and his coach had time to scream black and blue at him in the locker room, he may never have won that. It was Agassi's own fault too, he trained Medvedev some after Med was going to quit a few years earlier, and gave away a lot of his secrets.
masters of various racket sports have gone through these tiny little observations of an opponent
that become game changers. 360 degree acute awareness skills. brilliant
Love it! Observation IS key.
LMAO 😂 of course the guy from Vegas spots the tell! Priceless!
Definately took that side of poker and tells and applied it. Not saying it would’ve have come from a different region geography, but the coincidence might not be. Might be exactly from someone in Vegas to look for body tells in tennis
Hawk eyes ....to see his tongue so far
What a wonderful vid! Amazing to know these insights--that humans can problem solve on such a minute level!
Andre Agassi was the most exciting greatest player of his time. Legend Agassi. ❤❤❤
Reminds me of Mike in Rounders when he spots Teddy's tell with the Oreos.
Brilliant move to only selectively read Becker's tell. It would have been tempting to just destroy Becker's serve, but that likely would have led Becker to investigate how he was anticipating him so well.
wonderful Story :-)
Funniest thing I’ve heard in a long time... it was fun to watch Boris crumble to Agassi in all those semifinals!
@Rehmen Ada That's London smog for ya, reduces visibility.
The real lesson here is that actually Boris deep down knew something was up and that he felt Agassi was reading his mind. But, didn't listen to his gut and dig deeper into what was going on!
If you watch Becker warming up his serve in this video you can see exactly what Agassi is talking about: ua-cam.com/video/OKmC4Ikok8o/v-deo.html
Amazing... but the main question is : how could he possibly see his tongue from the other side of the court???????
It's impossible indeed
He just had good sight, having good sight helps when you're a tennis player. Also when you have been looking at the other side of the net for the past 2 hours, your eyes get used to it. Especially if you've been doing it for several years.
Once you see Pink, you never go back
Amazing assessment and mind control
I think Andre was one of the best, maybe the best returners of serve against anyone.
The best bar none
I feel like Andre just watched 'Rounders' and is clowning us.
Great story. I remember a similar one. During WW2 Brits broke enigma (nazi’s cryptographic machine). Now, they could predict attacks and follow all nazi’s navy. So, the hardest part was to let go some attacks of nazi’s submarines and let a whole bunch of people die in order not to compromise their knowledge and do not let germans figure out that the enigma code was broken. Otherwise they would have simply changed all the codes in the navy and the British intelligence would have to start everything from the square one. They develop a very complex statistical model and they used it to counter-attack germans only at the specific events. Which finally let the Brits to break the nazi navy’s spine, but at the same time, protected to secret.
it reminded me that too :D
Wow, that is awesome Andre.
One if the greatest stories, told by one of the greatest tennis players, and men of my generation.
Still had to return the serve, Andre. No one did it better.
Wish he used this tactic more back in ‘95 Wimbledon semis.
He won more slams to becker. Facts
But that was against Sampras, wasn’t it? Pete didn’t have the same tell.
Maybe. Of course it helps to be one of the best returners to ever play. Tongue-tell or not. Agassi was probably reading all of the body positions, toss, racquet position, etc. And it was probably instinctive.
That’s why he is the greatest returner of the serve ever.
No pal. Djokovic and Murray are better.
@@Revolver1981 no way man. Agassi at his prime was unbelievable
@@Danyel76 Agassi admits Djokovic and Murray are the two best returners of all time.
I want a rival that makes me chuckle like 2:32 🤣 cool story… master class!
I kinda imagine a universe where he never told about this and everyone would believe he has some incredible read
Very tongue in cheek.
That is a great story, thanks.
Though Boris won that time in the Wimbledon semi final..!
Wow, he is smart one!!!!
Cute now I have to say. A real man !!
And Steffi learned my tongue action too.
This Video is hilarious. I had no idea that tennis could be like poker.
Game Theory at its best.
Image... Is everything.
Wonderful.
Agassi, McEnroe, and Connors were my three favorite tennis players growing up. I have a lot of respect for the greatness of Federer, Nadal, and Djokovic, but I LOVED tennis back in the 1980s and 1990s because Agassi, McEnroe, and Connors were just rock stars.
He looks so different than any other time I’ve seen him throughout his life
Though it was Dana White
It's called getting older
I expected an unplugged version of "the sound of silence"...
The best of all time
Sampras once said the same thing. I wonder who noticed it first.
Only won the next 9 of 11? Jeez Becker must have been good to win two games against a guy who knew his serve!
Whaaaat?? Eagle eye! I just came back from future...Steffi best wife ever! If you want a great "read" check out Andre's autobiography...he's the sibling who made it! And survived Brooke!
Andre ❤
Agassi legend
amazing
What a great story.
The greatest returner of all time...period.
Your opinion...
@@nicolasbouyiouclis4726 If everyone in the tennis community that matters, say that he's the greatest returner of all time, it starts to become fact. Who was a better returner than him? Nadal,Sampras,and Federer are the only ones that come close...in my opinion.
@@kawasakiwhiptwo5821 you can have your opinion and I respect it, but the fact is that to many of the great tennis players have said that NJ has sure passed anyone else to this day!
This is awesome!
Enigma level stuff.
What a cool guy.
Very funny, but that´s live.;-)
This is a nice story but I have my doubts....
Me too. I think he's full of it.
Do either of you even watch tennis? 0-3 against him before he noticed the pattern, 9-2 after? Becker has even mentioned this.
You can even find video of Becker doing it.
Doubts about your tennis. You cannot hit a tennis ball.
Me too. This would mean nobody in Becker’s camp cared enough to try to determine how Agassi was able to “read his mind”. I find it surprising that a top athlete like Becker wouldn’t have a team of people helping with his strategy, which would have included his mannerisms on the court, especially during a serve. I’m assuming top soccer players’ videos are reviewed for their penalty shots.
I can't believe he's the only one noticed that 😂
Brilliant
Agassi has always been a very instinctual player, which helped his reflexes react so quickly, made it look easy
If only Edberg had come to know this secret!
Nice one!!....means there are others he has used this observation on and for those that have clicks in their games..are on the losing side fr their h2heads
misinformation is the most advanced skill level in warfare
😄 Nice story
Nice One Andre.. Xcellent