Open: An Autobiography

No topics were out of bounds, so our sessions were sometimes fun, sometimes painful. We didn’t go chronologically or topically; we simply let the talk flow, prodded now and then by stacks of clippings collected by our superb, young, soon-to-be-famous researcher, Ben Cohen.

After many months J.R. and I had a crate of tape cassettes - for better or worse, the story of my life. The intrepid Kim Wells then turned those tapes into a transcript, which J.R. somehow transformed into a story. Jonathan Segal, our wise, wonderful editor at Knopf, and Sonny Mehta, the Rod Laver of publishing, helped J.R. and me polish that first draft into a second and a third, which was then excruciatingly fact-checked by Eric Mercado, the second coming of Sherlock Holmes. I’ve never spent so much time reading and rereading, debating and discussing words and passages, dates and numbers. It’s as close as I’ll ever come, or want to come, to studying for final exams.

I asked J.R. many times to put his name on this book. He felt, however, that only one name belonged on the cover. Though proud of the work we did together, he said he couldn’t see signing his name to another man’s life. These are your stories, he said, your people, your battles. It was the kind of generosity I first saw on display in his memoir. I knew not to argue.

Stubbornness is another quality we share. But I insisted on using this space to describe the extent of J.R.‘s role and to publicly thank him.

I also want to mention the dedicated team of first readers to whom J.R. and I passed copies and excerpts of the manuscript. Each contributed in significant ways. Deepest thanks to Phillip and Marti Agassi, Sloan and Roger Barnett, Ivan Blumberg, Darren Cahill, Wendy Netkin Cohen, Brad Gilbert, David Gilmore, Chris and Varanda Handy, Bill Husted, McGraw Milhaven, Steve Miller, Dorothy Moehringer, John and Joni Parenti, Gil Reyes, Jaimee Rose, Gun Ruder, John Russell, Brooke Shields, Wendi Stewart Goodson, and Barbra Streisand.

A special thanks to Ron Boreta for being rock solid, for reading me as closely as he read this book, for giving me invaluable advice about everything from psychology to strategy, and for helping me rethink and revise my longstanding definition of the words best friend.

Above all, I want to thank Stefanie, Jaden, and Jaz Agassi. Forced to do without me on countless days, forced to share me for two years with this book, they never once complained, they only encouraged, which enabled me to finish. The steadfast love and support of Stefanie provided constant inspiration, and the daily smiles of Jaden and Jaz converted to energy as quickly as food turns to blood sugar.

One day, while I was working on the second draft, Jaden had a playmate over to the house. Manuscripts were piled high along the kitchen counter, and Jaden’s friend asked: What’s all that?

That’s my Daddy’s book, Jaden said in a voice I’d never heard him use for anything but Santa Claus and Guitar Hero.

I hope he and his sister feel that same pride in this book ten years from now, and thirty, and sixty. It was written for them, but also to them. I hope it helps them avoid some of the traps I walked right into. More, I hope it will be one of many books that give them comfort, guidance, pleasure. I was late in discovering the magic of books. Of all my many mistakes that I want my children to avoid, I put that one near the top of the list.

ILLUSTRATION CREDITS

top John C. Russell / Team Russell

This Is a Borzoi Book Published by Alfred A. Knopf

Copyright © 2009 by AKA Publishing, LLC

All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and in Canada by random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.

www.aaknopf.com

Knopf, Borzoi Books, and the colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Agassi, Andre, 1970:

Open : an autobiography / Andre Agassi. - 1st ed.

p. cm.

“Borzoi Book.”

eISBN: 978-0-307-59280-4

1. Agassi, Andre, 1970: 2. Tennis players - United States - Biography.

I. Title.

GV994.A43A43 2009

796.342092 - dc22 2009024004

[B]

v3.0

Document Outline

Open: An Autobiography

My father, Mike, as a scrappy eighteen-year-old bantamweight in Tehran

My parents, Mike and Betty Agassi, 1959, newlyweds in Chicago

Soon after arriving at the Bollettieri Academy, I start to rebel.

Eighteen years old, wearing a frosted mullet and denim shorts, my first signature look

With Gil in the desert outside Las Vegas, not long after we started working together full-time in 1990

In South Africa, on safari with Brooke, late 1997, days before meeting Mandela

Seconds after beating Andrei Medvedev to capture the 1999 French Open

After beating Pete at Indian Wells, I celebrate with Brad, not knowing it will be one of our last tournament victories together.

A private word with Pete Sampras after the final of the 2002 U.S. Open

My two greatest sources of strength, Gil and Stefanie, sitting in my box at the 2003 Australian Open