"I gave young Andre a hug at the net, and said, 'Why did you listen so well?" - When John McEnroe recalled his final Wimbledon match

John McEnroe is among the finest champions to have ever played on Wimbledon's grass courts.

The American won the tournament thrice in his illustrious career; in 1981, 1983, and 1984. His final appearance at the grass-court Major came in 1992 when he was unseeded.

McEnroe made his way to the semifinals with wins over Luiz Mattar, Pat Cash, David Wheaton, Andrei Olhovskiy, and Guy Forget. Here, he was up against a 22-year-old Andre Agassi, who was seeded 12th.

Agassi put in a dominant performance and beat McEnroe 6-4, 6-2, 6-3 in what turned out to be the latter's final Wimbledon match.

John McEnroe wrote about the match in his book, 'You Cannot be Serious', and claimed that he had no answer to Agassi's return of serve and his groundstrokes.

"As in certain key matches in the past, I would need all my energy for playing. In the end, I was simply unable to find the answer to Agassi’s blistering returns of serve, and to his big groundstrokes. He seemed to take the ball on as short a rise as I ever had in my prime, and to hit it twice as hard."

The seven-time Grand Slam winner stated that he gave Agassi a hug following the match. He also jokingly asked the winner why he listened so well to the grass-court tips that McEnroe had given him a few weeks prior to the match.

"The final score was 6–4, 6–2, 6–3. I gave young Andre a hug at the net, and said, 'Why did you listen so well?' A couple of weeks earlier, I had given him some grass-court tips, and I now saw that he had been all too astute a pupil," McEnroe wrote.

"Here was a kind of sweet poetic justice: In my final Wimbledon singles match, I was teaching manners to the next generation," he added.

Agassi eventually went on to win the 1992 Wimbledon men's singles title by defeating Goran Ivanisevic in the final.

John McEnroe and Andre Agassi locked horns on four occasions

Andre Agassi (2L) and John McEnroe (2R) during an exhibition match at Madison Square Garden in 2011

John McEnroe and Andre Agassi faced each other four times, with their head-to-head tied at 2-2.

The first meeting between the two came at Stratton Mountain in 1986, with McEnroe winning 6-3, 6-3. Agassi then won 6-4, 0-6, 6-4 in the semifinals of the 1988 Volvo Tennis Los Angeles.

The third meeting between the two came in the quarterfinals of the World Championship Tennis Finals, with McEnroe leading 6-4, 3-0 before Agassi was forced to retire.

The semifinal clash between the two in the 1992 Wimbledon Championships was the only time they faced one another at a Grand Slam.