"Break somebody's strength down" - Andre Agassi's former coach Brad Gilbert reveals American great's 'genius' strategy during playing days
Tennis coach Brad Gilbert was highly instrumental in some of the biggest successes of Andre Agassi's career, with six of Agassi's eight Grand Slam titles coming with Gilbert by his side as coach. However, there were times when the coach himself was left stunned by Agassi's strategic prowess and one such move by Agassi was recently termed 'genius' by Gilbert.
The American coach revealed that Agassi had the awareness and courage to target his opponents' strengths rather than weaknesses early in the match, thus gaining control over proceedings.
Reflecting on his own approach as a player, which also translated into his approach as a coach, Gilbert admitted that he always targeted the weakest aspects of an opponent's game and formulated game plans around the same. However, when he advised Agassi on the same strategy, the 4-time Australian Open champion had other ideas.
"What I was always worried about as a player was what the person I'm playing against did the shi**iest. I wanted to find that, find their weakness," Brad Gilbert explained on a recent episode of the Craig Shapiro Tennis Podcast.
"When I would explain (this) to Andre, when we were talking about tactics, he would always stop me and say, 'You're always telling me about the weakness first. Let's start with the strength.' Then he would always want to go after the strength first."
Gilbert revealed that Agassi's approach stemmed from the idea that he could put extreme pressure on his opponents if he could break down their strengths rather than weaknesses.
"He was like, 'If i can break somebody's strength down in the first game, I might just be able to chop them down completely'," Gilbert said.
While he did not initially understand Agassi's suggestion, he realized the "genius" behind it after seeing Agassi put the plan into action.
"In my brain, because I didn't have his skill set, it didn't really make sense. But thinking about it through his lens and watching how he was able to make it happen, it was genius," Gilbert expressed.
"Andre Agassi had a photographic memory" - Brad Gilbert
Coach Brad Gilbert also brought to light another aspect of Andre Agassi's personality, saying that the former World No. 1 had a "photographic memory" and processed information a lot more efficiently than many others. Gilbert, who compared his experience coaching Andre Agassi to that of coaching another superstar in Andy Roddick, revealed that Agassi would often spend three hours discussing strategy with him the night before a match.
"Andre and me could talk sometimes three hours the night before the match about strategy, tactics. Andre had a photographic memory," Gilbert said.
"With Roddick, he was a lot like Mission Impossible - 'This message will implode in 10 seconds'," he added.
Gilbert joined Agassi's team in March 1994 at a time when Agassi had just won a solitary Grand Slam title at 1992 Wimbledon. By the time their association ended in January 2002, Andre Agassi was a seven-time Grand Slam champion and had also clinched the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games gold medal, along with the ATP world No. 1 spot and many more ATP titles.