I came away from Monte Carlo scarred from the victory that got away, and scarred from the betrayal of that confidence. But I’d proved that I was competitive again. Muster was literally unbeatable on clay that year, he didn’t lose a match on clay until well after the French Open, and I felt that if I could challenge Muster on clay, I could challenge anyone on any surface. I lost to Adrian Voinea in the third round in Paris, but got to the semis at Queen’s, and then reached the final at Wimbledon. That made me the first man since tennis went ‘open’ in 1968 to reach Wimbledon finals 10 years apart. I felt I was really back on top of the world tennis-wise.

To get to the Wimbledon final I had to come through two very big matches. In the quarter-finals I needed a 9-7 final set to beat Cédric Pioline, and then in the semis I came up against Agassi, who was reborn that year. He’d started the year by cutting off his trademark long hair, he was US and Australian Open champion, and he’d got to No. 1... And when he led me 6-1, 4-1 with two breaks in the second set, he must have thought he had me.

There were a lot of sideshows around that match. My coach at the time was Nick Bollettieri. Nick had come to prominence coaching Agassi, but Agassi had split from him about 18 months earlier. Agassi was dating Brooke Shields, who was in the players’ box and was celebrating way too early and way too loud. I was mentally very strong then, physically a little tired after the Pioline five-setter, but in good form and feeling good. And yet I couldn’t find a way to challenge the Agassi return. There was a bit of friction between Nick and Andre following their split, and I knew a few things about Andre that I wouldn’t have known without Nick. Nick had told me before the match that I was doing Andre a favour when I came to the net behind all my serves, especially on his backhand because he had the best backhand return in the world. For a while I was too proud, I said to myself ‘This is Boris Becker on grass, I go to the net against everybody.’ Well after 6-1 and two breaks in the second, I looked up at Nick, smiled and said to myself ‘You know what Nick, I think you may be right. I’m going to stay back now,’ and that completely threw Andre off guard.

I’ve mentioned that I reached the final 10 years after my first final at Wimbledon. Well there was a remarkable parallel with the semi-finals that got me to both finals. What I did to Agassi was exactly what I did to Anders Järryd in the semi-final of 1985 (see page 80). I was outplayed in the first set, but then half-way through the second I stayed back after nearly every second serve, I started to rally with them, and it threw both of them. Playing on grass is about imposing your game on your opponent – if I could impose my game by charging into the net after my second serve, then great, but if I was playing to my opponent’s strength, then you have to change your tactics. Staying back robs the returner of the chance to pass the volleyer, and the change worked a treat in both the Järryd and the Agassi matches. Agassi couldn’t believe it. I got the two breaks back and won the second set on the tiebreaker, I won the third and fourth, and I beat him from the back. That was one of my biggest wins ever, because at 6-1, 4-1 down it was a joke. There was obviously a bit of a rivalry between Andre and me – not just because of Nick Bollettieri but also because we had different lifestyles and different images. It was definitely one of my greatest victories.

In the final, I took the first set against Sampras on the tiebreak, before he ground me down in four sets. I lost to the better player, there was nothing I could do, but I was very proud of my performance. In those days only the winner did a lap of honour, but as Sampras showed off his trophy, the crowd shouted for me to do a lap of honour with the runner-up’s salver – it’s now quite common, but I think I was the first one to do the loser’s lap of honour. I certainly felt like a winner that day. I felt I was back where I belonged, challenging for the title, and playing one of the all-time greats. I felt very redeemed afterwards. It was a match of very short rallies – I was told later that the longest rally was six strokes. That was tennis at that time. Rightly Wimbledon has changed the grass a bit, and they’ve slowed down the balls. The Ivanišević- Samparas final in 1998 was worse still, so I think the All England Club’s organisers made a change for the better. It was hurting the quality of play, and it affected the audience. Tennis was suffering because of this high-paced superpower tennis. We now have more rallies on grass, which is good, but does that mean you can only win Wimbledon from the baseline? I don’t think it does.