Ro's Recz

Andre Agassi is one of the most famous tennis players of all time, a former world #1, and an 8-time major champion. He also is the author of one of the most well-known sports autobiographies, which is the #1 national bestseller Open.

I listened to the audiobook version, but the physical version is 432 pages. At least from listening to the book, it was not a particularly difficult read; however, it was very interesting and eye-opening.

Throughout the book, Agassi talks about the struggles that he dealt with starting from his childhood. As you will learn if you read the entire book, Agassi did not choose to play tennis; instead, his father decided for him at a very young age that it would be his destiny in life. He had little to no say in this matter, and his father was always grooming him to be the best tennis player in the world. This lack of freedom and choice in his life ended up causing a lot of troubles for Agassi down the line.

Since Agassi was big before I was even born, I only know of Agassi as a tennis player, but I did not know of the struggles he dealt with as a person. While reading Open, you may run into several parts of the book where you find yourself getting mad at Agassi; some of the things he did were so dumb and immature, and it is hard to believe that he was able to get away with many of his extracurricular activities and still be the #1 tennis player in the world. However, I think the book also does a good job of really showing that even athletes are not everything the media makes them out to be, and that a lot of them have their own personal struggles as well.

If you read Open, not only will you learn a lot about tennis and Agassi’s career, but also about resilience and what it takes to be at the top of your profession!