00:00He'd been getting destroyed in every single match that they played against each other,
00:03but this time he had discovered a secret. A secret which Andre Agassi wouldn't tell a
00:08single soul until more than 20 years later. See, in the 80s and 90s, Boris Becker was feared in
00:14tennis for his explosive serves, which came in with a power and speed unlike anything the sport
00:20had ever seen before. And with that serve, Boris managed to defeat Andre Agassi in the first three
00:25matches they played against each other. But by the fourth match, Boris's serves no longer seemed to
00:30have the same effect on Andre. Boris still got some past him, but in every moment that it really
00:35mattered, where key points were on the line, Andre seemed to be returning every one of Boris's
00:40powerful serves with ease. Boris couldn't hide his frustration, and as their fourth match ended,
00:45Andre Agassi had finally beaten him. Boris couldn't understand. Andre had seemingly anticipated nearly
00:51every serve of his. He went home and he told his wife that it felt as if Andre was reading
00:56his mind.
00:57And the truth is, he kind of was. See, after being humiliated by Boris's unstoppable serves in their
01:03first three matches together, Andre had been determined to discover a way where he could
01:07predict where Boris would serve the ball. He bore every tape he could find of Boris's games,
01:12and he analysed each serve meticulously. He watched Boris's body language, the way he rocked back and
01:18forth before each serve, and he even counted the number of steps Boris took before each type of
01:22serve to see if he could find any patterns. But it was only when Andre started focusing in on the
01:27close-up shots of Boris that he noticed something seemingly hidden in plain sight. Andre already knew
01:33that Boris had a unique tick whenever he served, where he would poke his tongue out as he tossed the
01:38ball into the air. But what Andre started to realise was that Boris's tongue wasn't always pointing in the
01:43same direction. He thought maybe it wasn't just a tick, maybe it was a tell. And as it turns out,
01:49Andre was right. Every time that Boris served, his tongue would either stick out in the middle
01:54of his lips, which indicated he would be serving to the middle of the court, or out to the side,
01:59which indicated that he would be serving it wide. When Andre realised this, it completely blew his mind.
02:04He knew that he couldn't tell anyone, and he also knew that he certainly couldn't let Boris realise
02:08this himself. So he played it cool as best he could, only using this knowledge in the most important
02:14parts of the match. And Andre Agassi went on to defeat Boris Becker in 10 of the 11 remaining
02:20matches they played against each other through the rest of their careers. And when they finally met
02:24up with each other for a beer years after they had retired, Andre finally told Boris his secret,
02:29and Boris almost fell off his chair in disbelief.
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