Agassi opens up in autobiography

Posted Nov 16, 2009 by Bob D'Angelo

Updated Nov 16, 2009 at 08:04 PM

Reading Andre Agassi’s autobiography reminds me of an automobile accident. On the one hand, you wince when you see it. And yet, you can’t help but look.

There are plenty of passages in “Open: An Autobiography” (Alfred A. Knopf, $28.95) that will make the reader cringe. In the early stages of the book, Agassi complains that he hates tennis. Absolutely hates it. How his domineering, controlling father forced him to focus on the game, making him hit hundreds of balls every day. How he hated being sent to the Bollettieri Academy.

“I spent my childhood in an isolation chamber, my teen years in a torture chamber,” he writes.

Then the complaints turn into a confessional: Agassi reveals that he used crystal meth during his professional career, and when he tested positive, claimed that he ingested the drugs because of a spiked drink. In at least one match, he simply gave up. Agassi worries about losing his hair and laments his failed marriage to Brooke Shields.
And he still hated the game. Hated it.

Perhaps Agassi’s book will not generate much sympathy for him. After all, he had an excellent tennis career, won eight Grand Slam titles, was ranked No. 1 several times (including at age 33, the oldest player to hold the world’s top ranking in men’s tennis) and made millions of dollars in tournaments and endorsements, and was most famously portrayed in the “Image is Everything” commercials for Canon — a role Agassi learned to detest. It was not the way he wanted to be defined.

“This ubiquitous slogan, and the wave of hostility and criticism and sarcasm it sets off, is excruciating,” Agassi writes. “I feel betrayed … I feel abandoned.”

But that doesn’t mean “Open” lacks merit. On the contrary, it’s an illuminating look into the mind of a man who learned to be competitive as a child. Agassi gives the reader the dirt, but also reveals the preparation and mindset that separates a champion from a qualifier.

For example, Agassi didn’t realize it at the time, but in hindsight he discovered that his father’s background as a boxer helped him develop a killer instinct on the tennis court.

“He turns me into a boxer with a tennis racket.” Agassi writes.

Agassi analyzes the high and low points of his career, giving vivid details — too graphically, in some cases — about key matches. He relives his rivalry with Pete Sampras and gives fascinating on- and off-court anecdotes about his rival (Sampras once tipped a valet only a dollar at a Palm Springs restaurant, for example) and his other peers.

There is also the slow-dance courting of Steffi Graf — who, we discover, preferred her given name, Stefanie — that resulted in two of the game’s top players getting married.

For all of his complaints and regrets, Agassi has found some fulfillment, particularly in the academy that bears his name. More than 200 students each year have benefited from the school Agassi built from scratch. His trainer, Gil Reyes, and his longtime coach, Brad Gilbert, played key roles in his development, and both are referred to warmly in the book.

The book already has generated its share of controversy, particularly with the crystal meth revelation. But Agassi appears to have beaten his demons and is content in retirement. His autobiography gives him an opportunity to get his emotions and opinions off his chest. It’s certainly an open discussion.