"Open" Andre Agassi: The Courage To Get Up To Start Again.

 

It is the story of Andre Agassi, how he grew up during his childhood, and how, step by step, he became the great tennis champion we know.

It is a book about a difficult childhood lived close to an intransigent, obsessive father who puts his racket in his crib when he is still a baby and then runs it at all costs, through exhausting workouts and unpleasant brainwashing, so that he became the number one tennis player. For this purpose, he built a ball-throwing machine that, in the eyes of Andre, takes the form of a monstrous creature: from here, not having the boy the courage to rebel against the authoritarian figure of his father, Agassi begins to hate tennis, and on it, he will pour out all his frustration through rebellion. He will begin to wear unconventional clothing during tournaments to create an objective fashion and will assume attitudes, sometimes irreverent and not suited to different situations.

Indeed given the extreme dedication to the sport, it will come, as we all know, to achieve glory, satisfaction, money, and world fame without thoroughly enjoying his success.

Alongside the victories, there are moments of deep discouragement and a strong sense of disorientation, which lead him to the use and abuse of alcohol and meth, while his private life also faces bankruptcy with the divorce from his first wife.

Despite these and other problems, such as the problematic relationship with his historical opponent Pete Sampras, his hidden battle against baldness, and the backstory of tennis, he always has the desire never to give up and to get up to start again. Through humility that has always distinguished him, hence the rebirth, a new marriage with tennis player Steffi Graff, the birth of children, and the realization of the project to create a school for all those boys who live in challenging neighborhoods. To think he hated going to school when he was a kid.

I recommend this book not only to tennis lovers because it is not only a biography of a famous character, but it is, above all, the story of Agassi man, of his defeats suffered inside and outside the tennis court.

Beyond the great tennis champion, you can perceive all his pain, not only moral but also physical, his insecurities and the headshots that will lead him to a career swinging, but also all his determination and tenacity.

In my opinion, Agassi can be considered a beautiful example of resilience, that ability to fall and rise, without being discouraged by the darkness of the different chasms encountered, the ability to transform the negative into strengths.

This book is a confession without veils, which tells us that sometimes, success is not always related to love for what you do or to a great talent. Even sure, you can learn to love your job just the same, like when we do a job that we do not like but that we are forced to do for some reason. Here, you can do this if the key ingredients are perseverance, dedication, and hard work.

Agassi teaches us that our attitude of fear and lack of self-confidence can lead to failure, while when you stop thinking to focus on the one thing that really matters at that moment, you can be winners! Above all, it teaches us that the only opponent really hard to beat is ourselves.

I agree with you, Andre!

The American Tennis Player Andre Agassi with his Wife Steffi Graf, the Love that Scandalized Tennis.