Open - The Best Tennis Autobiography Ever!!

I have always been interested in tennis from a young age. My father is a huge tennis fan and loves to watch matches and analyse the different strategies the players use and how they play. Seeing my father's love for the game, my interest grew gradually as well. Luckily, when  I resettled in Tokyo, I found to my joy that there were multiple tennis courts and a lot of top-class tennis coaching centres. I immediately asked my parents to join me in a coaching centre and I had my first class before the first two weeks of my arrival itself!

 As my tennis journey continued, I too started watching the matches of all time legends such as Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Pete Sampras to name a few. Although all these players are exceptional, one player whose game and especially his return of the serve I truly admired was Andre Agassi. At the same time, I was really interested in the autobiography genre and was eagerly searching for good quality autobiographies from which I could learn a lot of things. At the same time, my cousin and friends told me that Andre Agassi had written his autobiography which was named Open. They highly recommended it to me and said that it was a really good read. Although I was a bit wary because a few other tennis players's biographies which I had read previously did not meet my expectations, I purchased the book and from the very first page, I was hooked!!

Andre Kirk Agassi, often considered as one of the greatest ever players to have graced the sport, was born in 1970. From the time Agassi turned professional in 1986 till his retirement in 2006, he has won 8 Grand Slam titles, with being the second player in the Open era to have won all four Grand Slams at least once. He was also the first in only two male players to have won all four Grand Slams as well as a gold medal for tennis in the Olympics.

After reading these amazing statistics, I continued to devour Open, which was getting more and more interesting by each word. Upon finishing the book, I immediately reached a fitting conclusion regarding it: This is the best tennis autobiography ever!! Here are a few reasons why I fell head on heels in love with this book.

1.  In Open, Agassi talks about his entire life from the time he was born till his retirement from tennis. He mentions his father's aspirations of him being the best tennis player in the world and also about the different struggles that he had with many of his coaches including his father. Furthermore, Agassi has vividly described his rivalries with various other players including Pete Sampras, Michael Chang and Boris Becker. He talks about their personalities of the field and says that while contesting with such fierce rivals, a player should be strong mentally as all sports are played 50% physically and the rest 50% mentally.

2. The feature I admire the most about the book is that Agassi was completely honest in writing about all the events in his life, including his relationships and low phases in his career. He has openly stated his likes and dislikes and what his thoughts were/are about the people whom he was surrounded with both personally and professionally. I really admire the fact that although he was pulled down by some of his friends, he chose to stay away from them and only closely associated with the people who have always been helping him like his trainer/friend Gil Reyes and his wife, the famous tennis player Steffi Graf. This has taught me that if you surround yourself with people who only want the best for you, then it is easy for you to reach heights in any field.

3. This might come as a surprise for many of you; it certainly surprised me as well, but one thing which is mentioned in regular intervals throughout the book by Agassi is that he has always disliked tennis!! He writes that he was forced by his father to play tennis although he has always preferred team sports such as football. I was astounded by this because I believe it is very difficult to excel in anything if you are not passionate about it. Nevertheless, I respect his opinion and I admire the fact that inspite of not liking the sport, he went on to become one of the best ever players to play it; something, which I belive is a monumental task.

In overall, I thoroughly enjoyed Open which is Andre Agassi's autobiography. I loved it because of Agassi's honesty, his narration of his remarkable career and the magic of tennis, which wove magic and bound the entire book together😃

P.S: Here is a video where Andre Agassi talks about Open, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7QHoI-A3PI.