Open

Open by Andre Agassi is a 2009 memoir that provides insight into the professional tennis world and the personal life of one of its most iconic figures. Agassi recounts his journey from a pressured child prodigy to a rebellious young star and ultimately a mature athlete who found his true self both on and off the court. With brutal honesty, Agassi reveals his intense physical and emotional struggles, including injuries, relationships, and a deep-seated ambivalence toward the sport that made him famous. Beyond a story of athletic triumphs and defeats, the memoir is a profound exploration of identity, perseverance, and the quest for authenticity.

This guide cites the 2009 HarperCollins e-book edition.

Content Warning: The source material addresses child abuse, mental health, substance misuse, and the pressures of professional sports.

Summary

Andre Agassi recounts his early years in Las Vegas. His father, Mike Agassi, obsessed with making him a tennis champion, subjected him to a relentless training regimen. Andre’s three older siblings endured a similar regimen, but he was the most talented and thus the object of the most focus. His father created “the dragon,” a ball machine modified to fire fast and high. Andre hated tennis and had no desire to be a champion but loved his father (and feared his violent tendencies). When his father gave him speed to enhance his tournament performance, Andre deliberately played poorly.

Mike sent Andre to Nick Bollettieri’s Tennis Academy in Florida. Andre hated the prison-like academy, which enforced a grueling regimen. Attending a local school in the mornings, students played tennis until bedtime. Andre’s father could afford the academy’s fees for only three months, but Nick, recognizing Andre’s talent, coached him for free. Andre disliked school even more than the academy; lacking study time, he couldn’t keep up with the curriculum. He rebelled by getting a pink mohawk and ear piercings. When he wore torn dungarees, eyeliner, and earrings while playing a tournament, Nick publicly shamed him and added chores to his already exhausting schedule. Andre unsuccessfully tried to leave. When Andre won a giant stuffed panda at a theme park, Nick wanted to buy it for his young daughter, so Andre, on the advice of his best friend, Perry Rogers, used the panda to negotiate with Nick to quit school and enter more tournaments.

Andre turned professional at age 16, feeling he had no other options, and Philly, his older brother and confidante, accompanied him to tournaments. A lucrative sponsorship deal with Nike made Andre infamous for his rebellious image and long hair. Fans started to dress like him, while the media accused him of attention-seeking. In reality, Andre’s long hair (and a hairpiece) disguised premature balding. His external bravado masked an internal struggle with self-identity.

During 1986 and 1987, Andre traveled worldwide, playing in three of the major Grand Slam tournaments: the US Open, French Open, and Wimbledon. He adapted to playing on clay and grass but disliked Wimbledon’s formal regulations. In Paris, at the Louvre, he identified with a painting of a young man on a cliff edge carrying an old man with a sack of money on his back. In late 1987, 17-year-old Andre won his first professional tournament in Brazil, and in 1988 he was on the winning Davis Cup team. Ranked fourth in the world, he consistently reached the quarterfinals or semifinals in major tournaments. When he appeared in a 1989 Canon “Image is Everything” ad (130), the press suggested the slogan summed up Andre as a player. His deluge of fan mail included photos of naked women.

Andre’s fitness vastly improved under trainer Gil Reyes, who became a close friend and father figure and an integral member of his support network. Andre beat his two major professional rivals, Jim Courier and Michael Chang, in the 1990 French Open, making the final for the first time. However, just before the match, his hairpiece disintegrated. Philly clipped strands into place, but Andre lost in the final, distracted by the possibility of his hairpiece falling off. In the US Open final, he lost to Pete Sampras, a player he had never considered serious competition.

Andre’s achievements reflected his vacillation between a desire to win matches and a lack of motivation. He lost to Courier in the 1991 French Open final but won the Davis Cup final, wearing Oakley sunglasses to disguise a hangover. In 1992, he won his first major title as Wimbledon champion. He was briefly elated, but the effects did not last. He missed the hard-court season due to a wrist injury and was devastated when his girlfriend, Wendi, broke up with him. In 1993, he was Wimbledon’s lowest-seeded defending champion ever and lost in the second round. The press focused on his new girlfriend, Barbra Streisand, who was 28 years his senior. After his wrist surgery, Andre began dating actor Brooke Shields.

In 1994, Andre hired coach Brad Gilbert, who focused on his psychological approach to matches. Entering the US Open unseeded, Andre won the tournament. After Brooke persuaded him to shave his head, he also won the 1995 Australian Open, beating Sampras and achieving the number-one world ranking. In 1995, after defeating Andre in the Wimbledon final, Boris Becker claimed in an interview that other players on the tennis circuit disliked Agassi. Vowing revenge, Andre experienced a winning streak, successively winning 20 matches and four tournaments. He beat Becker in the 1995 US Open semifinals. However, when he lost to Sampras in the final, all his former achievements seemed worthless.

Convinced that Sampras would always beat him and plagued by injuries, Andre experienced many early-round losses in 1996 and 1997. He failed to reach any Grand Slam finals and was repeatedly penalized for swearing and skipping compulsory press conferences. He hit a career low when his ranking slipped to 141st and he was dropped from the Davis Cup team. At the time, Brooke’s career resurged after a guest appearance in the sitcom Friends. Andre watched the episode being recorded but stormed off and smashed his trophies when Brooke was required to lick the character Joey’s hand. With his assistant, Slim (a regular drug user), Andre used crystal methamphetamine. Despite having reservations about his relationship with Brooke, he proposed to her, and they married in 1997.

Brad insisted that Andre either quit or dedicate himself to winning. He recommitted to his career but faced likely suspension after failing a drug test. He lied to the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), claiming he inadvertently drank a soda spiked with crystal methamphetamine. The ATP accepted his explanation. Andre resumed his tennis career from the bottom, entering Challenger tournaments. He and Perry founded a charity to establish a school for underprivileged inner-city children, and the desire to raise money for it remotivated his career. He and Brooke attempted to save their failing marriage by vacationing to islands but eventually divorced.

The most successful period of Andre’s career was 1998-2003. In 1999, he reclaimed the number-one world ranking and won the French Open, the Grand Slam title that had eluded him. At the 2001 Australian Open, he won his seventh Grand Slam. After pursuing German women’s tennis champion Steffi Graf, Andre married her in 2001. They had a son, Jaden, in 2002 and a daughter, Jaz, in 2003.

Between 2004 and 2006, because of recurrent injuries and excruciating pain from herniated discs in his spine, Andre increasingly relied on cortisone injections between matches. His contemporaries Courier, Chang, and Sampras retired, but Andre dismissed suggestions that he should do so. Though newcomers like Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer increasingly defeated him, he accepted losses stoically, since his family and charitable work were his priorities. In 2006, at age 36, Andre announced he would retire after the US Open. His second-round match against Marcos Baghdatis was a grueling five-set battle, but Andre eventually won. Observing Andre’s pain, Mike Agassi begged him to withdraw from the tournament. However, Andre insisted on continuing and lost in the third round. Upon his retirement, commentators observed how Agassi’s persona had changed. However, Andre reflected that he had simply learned who he was.