Love and hate, hate and love. Open, an autobiography by Andre Agassi, starts and ends with this pair of emotions. He didn't get much farther in figuring out whether he loves tennis or hates it by the book's 386th page, but Agassi has learned to live with this struggle instead of fighting it. Yes, he loves it and he hates it; they are different sides of the same court.
The book follows his long-running struggle with himself through his remarkable professional career of two decades, which included an impossible comeback - and a dignified if no less tortured ("Please let this be over. I'm not ready for it to be over.") retirement at age 36 in 2006.
Agassi says the changed purpose of his tennis life made all the difference - the school he set up in Nevada and his marriage to another tennis great, Steffi Graf. The player who was forced by his father to play tennis from the age of seven and was driven by the need to be perfect could, well, relax.
Those who expect a tell-all tome from the Eighties icon of long hair, earring and denim shorts on court will be disappointed. It doesn't spill many beans, except for tidbits like trying out crystal methylene and wearing a hairpiece even as fans were growing the Agassi mane.
But Open does have a lot of Agassi writing like he were talking aloud to himself, as he does before or during matches. In short, it offers frank - cathartic - thoughts from a guy who wanted to "put his story down on paper" and had no hang-ups in crediting the author JR Moehringer for transforming transcripts of their conversations into a book. Perhaps this is because Agassi doesn't have much more to prove - not after eight Grand Slam singles championships and a Golden Slam (four Grand Slam singles plus an Olympic gold).
Johanna Son
