Open

Andre Agassi bears all in his surprisingly introspective autobiography. 

I just finished reading Open, the autobiography of the retired tennis player Andre Agassi. It was a really good book; it wasn't just good for a sports memoir, it was a good book all around. I don't even follow tennis that closely and I found myself falling in love with the man's internal struggles.

Brief summary of the book:

Andre Agassi grows up in Las Vegas with a tennis racket shoved into his hand by his overbearing father, forced to hit thousands of balls each day. He resents his father and comes to hate tennis with a passion despite his obvious talent.

Agassi is sent against his will to the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy. He has absolutely no freedom and is forced to play tennis until his arms fall off. Andre is uncomfortable and insecure in his new home and acts out, cutting class, getting his ear pierced, drinking etc. He turns pro (and drops out of school) when he is only 16 years old.

Andre struggles with the challenges of being a professional tennis player and comes close to quitting multiple times. Gil Reyes, his athletic trainer, closest friend and surrogate father helps him through the tough times and Agassi goes on to win a total of 8 grand slams.

Agassi marries actress Brooke Shields but later divorces her and is now married to former tennis player Steffi Graf.

Andre Agassi secretly hated the game that made him millions. 

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What made this book so intriguing were Agassi's flaws and how they shaped him as a person. I have never heard of a professional athlete in any sport who achieved his level of success who secretly hated the sport. Agassi emphasized this over and over again throughout the book, it wasn't even a love-hate relationship, tennis was just the only thing he knew how to do well. 

Agassi also revealed how the wild mullet he used to rock back in his playing days was fake. He had been going bald since an early age and was too embarrassed to tell anybody. 

During a particularly low stretch in Agassi's career he even turned to crystal meth. This was probably the most shocking news in his book. 

What makes Agassi so endearing, which in turn makes the book so good, is that his flaws don't make you hate him, they make you understand and empathize. For most of his life Andre Agassi floated along without much meaning or friendship. On the outside he may have been this young tennis prodigy with an outlandish haircut and load of dough but on the inside he was empty. Most people look at pro athletes and place them on this pedestal, thinking that they must all live awesome lives because of how good they are at their sport and because they make a lot of money. But Agassi destroys this stereotype because of his well-detailed internal struggles. Agassi came to peace with himself and found true love in Brooke Shields and managed to overcome all of his flaws. He's inspiring not because he was one of the greatest tennis players of all time, rather, one could argue that serious tennis players or fans of Agassi would be discouraged after realizing their tennis star was not who they thought he was. Open was so intriguing because Agassi was the anti-hero, a guy who hated tennis and didn't seem dedicated at times, but his thoughtfulness and originality is a breath of fresh air and he found his true love and passion at the end of the story: his wife, kids and the Andre Agassi Foundation for Education.