Now that this year’s US Open is underway, I thought it would be a good idea to recognize one of the sport’s greatest figures, Andre Agassi, and encourage you to pick up his book, Open. In it, he offers a deeply honest and painful account of his struggles with his difficult relationship with his father, with hating a sport for which he was unnaturally gifted, and with himself.
The book starts off during his second to last match against Greek player Marcos Baghdatis at the US Open in 2006. At 36 years of age, it is at this point of his life that he has all but succumbed to the blinding pain in his back due to sciatica, a vertebral displacement condition called spondyloisthesis and a bone spur. He recounts the sheer effort and will it took to get out there and push past the pain to eventually win the match. He was (and still is) a fighter, just like his father.
Andre’s father, Mike Agassi (given name: Emmanuel Aghassian), was actually a fighter. In his home country of Iran, he represented Iran in the 1948 and 1952 Summer Olympics in boxing. After emigrating to the US and living for a short while in Chicago, he eventually settled down with his wife Elizabeth in Las Vegas. Mike had a burning passion for competition and tennis and he took up a career in stringing racquets for the pros. He decided that his children, and Andre in particular, were going to not only play tennis, but be professional tennis and #1 at that. He constantly and relentlessly pushed Andre to the point of hating tennis and himself, because of the constant insecurity he gained from having to please an overbearing, hard-driving father. This hatred and insecurity would follow him for the rest of his career and would spur him into many reckless decisions, including using crystal meth at one point in order to escape himself.
Eventually, he would find the people in his life that helped keep him sane, and he kept them tightly to him. Perry, his best friend from childhood whom he eventually bring him on as a manager (and with whom there has been a nasty split of late years). Gil Reyes, his trainer who became a surrogate father figure. Nick Bollettieri, the owner of the renowned tennis academy and which whom Andre had a rocky mentor relationship with. There was also his coach, Brad Gilbert, himself an accomplished professional player who has also coached Andy Roddick and Andy Murray. And finally, after a rocky marriage to Brooke Shields, he met and married his true love, Steffi Graf, also an extraordinarily accomplished player.
But there is another person that also helped push him as a person and a player: Pete Sampras. In a way, Pete was the exact opposite of Andre in every way. For as much as Andre hated tennis, Pete loved it. For as flamboyant as Andre was, Pete was the serious straight man. According to Pete, “I think he was sort of lost and not sure what he wanted, and I knew exactly where I wanted to go”. But the two would continually face off with each other in competition. Both men acknowledge not really knowing each other and that there was a big wall between them but as one does with a rival, undoubtedly they must have compared themselves to each other.
In Agassi’s last speech, after his 3rd round loss to Benjamin Becker in 2006, as always in his poignant way of expressing himself, he said:
The scoreboard said I lost today, but what the scoreboard doesn’t say is what it is I’ve found,” Agassi told the crowd, tears streaming down his cheeks, his voice cracking with emotion. “Over the last 21 years, I’ve found loyalty. You have pulled for me on the court and also in life. I have found inspiration. You have willed me to succeed sometimes even in my lowest moments.
Open is a great read. I found it very illuminating and I came away with a much better understanding of Agassi’s struggles and respect for this historical player.
