We have visible evidence that PR works. 
Open by Andre Agassi
Open by Andre Agassi
Preceding Open’s publication was a classic media frenzy, stemming from the revelation that the text contained an admission by Agassi, one of tennis’ most beloved practitioners, that he used pure methamphetamine for a period during his career. Everyone from Roger Federer to Boris Becker to Martina Navratilova weighed in with personal opinion, most of it harsh.
In interviews Agassi gave at the time, he said something shocking to many – that he always hated tennis. Born to an Iranian immigrant father, a former Olympic boxer with whom Agassi had a complex, fearful relationship, the future superstar lay in a crib overhung with tennis balls, to improve his hand-eye coordination, and was put on the court at the age of three.
His talent was such that he was given a scholarship to the prestigious Nick Bollettieri Academy in Florida as a young teen, landing in a pressure-cooker environment which only made him loathe the sport more. He describes telling person after person, from his trainer and father figure Gil Reyes to his wives Brooke Shields and Steffi Graf, of his feelings about the game. His memory of the various responses is one of the treats of the book.
Open reads so well in part because it’s written in the present tense (by J R Moehringer, based on extensive interviews and conversations with Agassi). It’s a brave choice, because it risks tinting the narrative with artifice, but it works brilliantly for a sports biography, adding a breathless intensity to Agassi’s account of some of the key matches in his career. Even if you’re not a tennis fan, his recollections of the 1995 ‘Summer of Revenge’ against Boris Becker (whom he detested), of how he deliberately lost the 1996 Australian Open semifinal to Michael Chang, and of the many extraordinary encounters with his nemesis Pete Sampras are mesmerizing.
This is not simply a story about a self-loathing, uncommonly gifted boy from Las Vegas who became a sporting legend. It’s also a lesson in the art of branding – how lucrative endorsements stemmed from the selling of Agassi as a brash, rebellious punk, which, he writes, was not how he ever intended to be perceived. When he starts to lose his hair at 20, forcing him to wear a hairpiece on the court, he describes his terror at the prospect of damage to the Agassi image.
Many commentators have called this the best sports autobiography they have read. I would go so far as to say is one of the best autobiographies ever produced. Most memoirs are a waste of everyone’s time – they are flawed most commonly by a mixture of self-aggrandizement, dishonesty and score-settling. (I still haven’t recovered from Bill Clinton’s devoting barely any space to Monica Lewinsky in his 957-page memoir My Life, instead choosing to exhaustively excoriate Kenneth Starr, the independent counsel whose investigations prompted Clinton’s impeachment.)
Real self-reflection and a willingness to turn a torch to dark corners are the hallmarks of a great autobiography, and Open has them in spades.
Tags: Alexander Communications, Book Review, Open By Andre Agassi, Personal Choices, Stephanie Jones, Tennis
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