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Open: An Autobiography

Book By Andre Agassi
2010
Posted By Monica Nawrot

Open: An Autobiography

Former tennis world number one, Andre Agassi goes into detail about his tennis career and personal life.

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In Open: An Autobiography former tennis world number one, Andre Agassi goes over the high and low points of his career. Starting his professional career in 1986 at age sixteen, Andre explains that the person who influenced him the most into becoming a tennis player was his father. However, Andre did not want anything to do with tennis, and never actually wanted to go pro. His father had mapped out his career from such an early age that by twenty two Andre had already won his first grand slam title, before going on to win seven more. Andre goes over many details of his personal life as well. Like his marriages to actress Brooke Shields and German professional tennis player, Steffi Graf. Overall, the main theme of this book is Andre’s disdain for the sport of tennis and how fame and fortune especially at such a young age created many low points in his life.

Open: An Autobiography 's Relation To Sport Business

Going inside the mind of professional athletes through their autobiography is quite a well-known concept. In Andre’s case he does so in a unique way and gives us a look into the negative aspect of fame. Starting with his childhood he always had a volatile relationship with his father. His father, Emmanuel Agassi, was a former Olympic boxer and only wanted his son to follow in the same Olympic dreams. This led to Emmanuel pushing his son fair past his limits and into a sport he never actually wanted to participate in. Emmanuel constantly overworked his son into the ground and even took him down a dark road by giving him drugs like speed and crystal meth in hopes of enhancing Andre’s performance. This wasn’t the end of Andre’s low point as his father’s abuse and his new fame got to be too much for him. 

However, after retiring Andre was able to turn his life around. He now operates a tennis school with over 38,000 participants nationwide. He also is now able to focus more time on philanthropy.

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Open: An Autobiography has been suggested to us by sport industry professionals we talk to on a regular basis. See a list of those individuals below.

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Why read Open: An Autobiography ?

If you want to read an autobiography unlike many others Open: An Autobiography is a great option! In most athlete’s autobiographies we learn about their inspiring story, the low points of their career and how they managed to overcome adversity. However Andre Agassi’s story is quite the opposite. The main premise of the book is how he never wanted to become a professional tennis player and only did so because of the influence his father had over his life. Andre also mentions how fame and wealth left him only feeling unfulfilled and unhappy, something you don’t expect to hear about in most inspirational stories. Luckily, he does seem to be doing much better now. He is currently married with two kids, and has found his true passion in philanthropy. 

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