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Under the Influence

Andre Agassi beat Boris Becker by studying his tongue

Boris Becker's serve was unbeatable. Until one day, Agassi noticed a tongue tell.
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Andre Agassi captured the Rogers Cup three times (1992, 1994 and 1995). ((Elise Amendola/Associated Press))
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When tennis great Andre Agassi first played rival Boris Becker, Becker beat him three times in a row. Agassi said Becker's serve was something the game had never seen. It was explosive. No one had hit the ball with that much ferocity and power before.

Agassi needed to figure out a way to cope with Becker's big serves.

While other players spent additional hours in the gym trying to bulk up to match Becker's power, Agassi sat on his couch and watched hundreds of hours of tape on Becker's game. Then one day, he spotted something. Becker had a weird, consistent tick. It was his tongue.

Boris Becker of Germany, the youngest men's champion in history at 17, won Wimbledon three times in 1985-86 and 1989. (Chris Cole/Getty Images)

Becker would go into his pre-service rocking motion, his usual routine, and just before he was about to toss the ball, he would stick his tongue out. It would either be right in the middle of his lip, or it would be in the left corner of his lip. So if he was serving in the deuce court, and he stuck his tongue out in the middle of his lip, he was serving up the middle. But if he put his tongue to the side, he was going to serve out wide.

It happened over and over again. Consistently.

The hardest part for Agassi wasn't returning his serve, the hardest part was not letting Becker know he knew this. So Agassi had to resist the temptation of reading his serve for the majority of the match and rather choose the moments when he was going to use that information on a given point.

Years later, Andre Agassi was having a beer with Boris Becker, and said, "By the way, did you know you used to give away your serves by the consistent way you positioned your tongue?"

Boris nearly fell off his chair. Becker said he would go home after their matches and tell his wife, "It's like he reads my mind."

Of course, Agassi wasn't reading his mind. He was reading his tongue.

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