Brad Gilbert, ranked world No. 5 at the peak of his career, is today better known as a coach. From helping Coco Gauff reach a career-high ranking of world No.3 since joining her team to being influential in the success of many top players, such as Andre Agassi and Andy Roddick, Gilbert is a household name. But this mentor/ mentee duo recently discussed a surprising turn of events that took place in 1994.

Gilbert has previously drawn parallels between Gauff and Agassi. The American coach now reveals a few anecdotal details about Agassi and how he surprised Gauff’s mentor when he was still playing.

Brad Gilbert was ranked higher than Andre Agassi

In the latest episode of his podcast, Served With Andy Roddick, he talks to his former coach Gilbert. The American coach reminisces how he was ranked higher than Agassi, in 1994, when he first started coaching him. Agassi was coming out of a wrist injury and was ranked 30 while the American coach was ranked 25.  Further revealing how Agassi surprised him, he says, “And then that kind of led on the journey that I didn’t realize that they were actually thinking about, you know me as a coach, nor at that point was I thinking about coaching because I was still you know, the tennis player.”

He explains, “I was probably six months to a year away from what you’ve been talking about with Andy Murray that question that you’re going to get asked, What are you going to do next? What is your next move? I feel like as a player, if once you start to talk about that, yep, the corner is right there. Yeah. So I was probably in denial about it. But once your ranking is still okay, you try it and not think about it.”

Gilbert coached Agassi from 1994 to 2002. He was instrumental in the American’s rise making him more aggressive, working on his serve and return. Agassi’s success thereafter was a testament to the effectiveness of Gilbert’s coaching methodology. Out of the eight Grand Slams Agassi won,  Gilbert was standing beside Agassi for six of them and shared a great relationship with him.

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Brad Gilbert considers Andre Agassi a genius

Gilbert is often found showering Agassi with praises. On the Craig Shapiro Tennis Podcast, he revealed that Agassi had the awareness to target his opponent’s strengths rather than his weaknesses so that he could control the game from the get-go. He remarks, “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.”

He admits that he couldn’t understand Agassi’s strategy initially but realized the genius behind it later. “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,” he expressed.

Brad Gilbert is truly a master of the game and with him having drawn similarities between Agassi and Gauff he has already indicated the potential she holds. Will we be able to witness greatness with these two coming together? That time will tell.

Read More: Years after Adding New Dimension to Andre Agassi, Legendary Coach Reveals How He Instilled Similar Game to 19-Year-Old Coco Gauff