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In Memoir, Agassi Opens His Heart, Tells All

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  • In Memoir, Agassi Opens His Heart, Tells All

    In Memoir, Agassi Opens His Heart, Tells All
    By Armenian Weekly Staff
    January 3, 2010


    Open is a beautiful, haunting autobiography by Andre Agassi, one of
    the most beloved athletes in history and one of the most gifted men
    ever to step onto a tennis court.


    `Watch your volleys, he yells - or tries to. An Armenian, born in Iran,
    my father speaks five languages, none of them well, and his English is
    heavily accented."
    `This book is a recollection, a work of memory, a comeback story; but
    it's also an atonement, an attempt to share what I've learned,' says
    Agassi in a video posted on Amazon.

    Agassi's incredibly rigorous training begins when he is just a child.
    His father is his first trainer. `Watch your volleys, he yells - or
    tries to. An Armenian, born in Iran, my father speaks five languages,
    none of them well, and his English is heavily accented,' Agassi
    writes. `He mixes his Vs and Ws, so it sounds like this: Vork your
    wolleys. Of all his instructions, this is his favorite. He yells this
    until I hear it in my dreams. Vork your wolleys. Vork your wolleys.

    By the age of thirteen, he is banished to a Florida tennis camp that
    feels like a prison camp. Lonely, scared, a ninth-grade dropout, he
    rebels in ways that will soon make him a 1980s icon. He dyes his hair,
    pierces his ears, dresses like a punk rocker. By the time he turns pro
    at sixteen, his new look promises to change tennis forever, as does
    his lightning-fast return.

    And yet, despite his raw talent, he struggles early on. We feel his
    confusion as he loses to the world's best, his greater confusion as he
    starts to win. After stumbling in three Grand Slam finals, Agassi
    shocks the world, and himself, by capturing the 1992 Wimbledon.
    Overnight he becomes a fan favorite and a media target.

    Agassi brings a near-photographic memory to every pivotal match and
    every relationship. Never before has the inner game of tennis and the
    outer game of fame been so precisely limned. Alongside vivid portraits
    of rivals from several generations - Jimmy Connors, Pete Sampras, Roger
    Federer - Agassi gives unstinting accounts of his brief time with Barbra
    Streisand and his doomed marriage to Brooke Shields. He reveals a
    shattering loss of confidence. And he recounts his spectacular
    resurrection, a comeback climaxing with his epic run at the 1999
    French Open and his march to become the oldest man ever ranked number
    one.

    In clear, taut prose, Agassi evokes his loyal brother, his wise coach,
    his gentle trainer, all the people who help him regain his balance and
    find love at last with Stefanie Graf. Inspired by her quiet strength,
    he fights through crippling pain from a deteriorating spine to remain
    a dangerous opponent in the twenty-first and final year of his career.
    Entering his last tournament in 2006, he's hailed for completing a
    stunning metamorphosis, from nonconformist to elder statesman, from
    dropout to education advocate. And still he's not done. At a U.S. Open
    for the ages, he makes a courageous last stand, then delivers one of
    the most stirring farewells ever heard in a sporting arena.

    With its breakneck tempo and raw candor, Open will be read and
    cherished for years. A treat for ardent fans, it will also captivate
    readers who know nothing about tennis.
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