Open

by Andre Agassi ★★★★★

I mentioned to Stephanie this past weekend that I finished Open, Andre Agassi's autobiography.

"Was it good?" she asked me.

"It was great."

"Does he talk about his hair?" (obviously everyone's second question)

"Yes."

"Does he talk about Steffi Graf?"

"Yes."

"Didn't he date someone else famous? Brooke Shields? Does he talk about her?"

"Yes. He talks about everything."

He really does talk about everything. From growing up in Las Vegas under the iron fist of his father/coach, who was determined for Andre to not just be good at tennis but to be #1 in the world, through his emergence onto the professional tennis scene and one of the longest professional careers in the history of the sport, Agassi covers his life from the first time he picked up a tennis racket at age 4 until his eventual retirement at age 36. It's not just something for tennis fans, however—this is as honest and forthcoming of an autobiography as I have read, and it's as much about perseverance, determination, and overcoming setbacks as it is about the specific sport.

You see, Agassi has a secret: he hates tennis, and he always has. It was perhaps his most closely guarded piece of personal information, something he never spoke about publicly while a professional, but a feeling he warred with for more than 30 years. What do you do when the thing you're best at—maybe the only thing you're qualified to do professionally—is also the thing that you hate the most? He remembers being seven years old, wanting to quit, but being unable to. "I hate tennis, hate it with all my heart, and still I keep playing, keep hitting all morning, and all afternoon, because I have no choice. No matter how much I want to stop, I don't. I keep begging myself to stop, and I keep playing, and this gap, this contradiction between what I want to do and what I actually do, feels like the core of my life."

The title Open is well-chosen and works on multiple levels. There are, of course, the four major tennis tournaments that make up the tennis Grand Slam, all of which (save Wimbledon) are named "Opens" (the Australian, French, and U.S.) and serve as the most meaningful measuring sticks for Agassi in his professional career. But it's also a play on how Agassi was perceived by many during his tennis career, or more specifically, the opposite of how he was perceived. At one point Agassi paraphrases a post-match news conference by fellow tennis star Boris Becker. After beating Agassi, Becker used his time to publicly declare some frustrations with Agassi's place in the game. As Andre recalls, "He complained that all major tournaments kiss my ass. Then he got personal. He called me an elitist. He said that I don't associate with other players. He said that I'm not well liked on the tour. He said I'm not open, and if I were open, maybe other players wouldn't fear me so much." If that was the case—that Agassi "wasn't open" while on the tour—he makes up for lost time with the forthrightness and detail in his autobiography. No sensitive subject or uncomfortable moment is spared.

Like Dave Grohl in his memoir The Storyteller, Agassi also seems to have an uncanny memory, certainly about tennis, but also about nearly everything. When writing about a warmup from 2006, he says:

"We hit for twenty-eight minutes. I don't know why I notice these details—the length of an afternoon shower, the duration of a practice session, the color of James's shirt. I don't want to notice, but I do, all the time, and then I remember forever. My memory isn't like my tennis bag; I have no say over its contents. Everything goes in, and nothing ever seems to come out."

That memory is on full display, as Agassi recounts events and conversations from long before he was famous in significant detail. When he gets to the more public parts of his life, Agassi doesn't merely retell events that are well chronicled. He takes us inside his mind—what was he thinking and feeling in that moment—providing a fresh take on those well-documented events, while also sharing a myriad of the behind-the-scenes stories that never made a major publication.

There is, of course, plenty of tennis. Agassi has a gift for building tension when recalling a match, capturing the intricacies of the game, the swings in momentum, and the excitement of a back-and-forth match between two people competing at the highest level. Even if you're not a tennis fan, I think you'll be drawn in to those pressure-packed moments.

When he realized he wanted to put his life story on paper, Agassi knew he needed help. He sought out Pulitzer Prize-winning author J.R. Moehringer, whose critically-acclaimed 2005 memoir The Tender Bar had Agassi riveted. While it's only Agassi's name on the cover (at Moehringer's insistence), the composition of Agassi's stories into the finished product is mostly Moehringer's work, and I think his gift for writing and storytelling likely elevated some great source material into something special.

There's a bit of everything in the book—the pinnacle of success, the depth of failure, deep friendships, intense competition, internal and external conflict, a bit of romance, and even a healthy dose of Agassi's wry sense of humor sprinkled throughout. Despite clocking in at nearly 600 pages, it doesn't feel unnecessarily long, and it never dragged for me. It's a thorough recounting of a unique life, and it's among the best autobiographies I have read.