They were almost two different people – the brash young mullet-sporting phenom who won his first major at Wimbledon in 1992 – eventually becoming #1 in 1995 – and the mature, bald tennis elder who regrouped and returned to #1 in 1999 after plummeting to as low as #141 in the world. To be honest, this long after the events, it’s hard for me disentangle my memories of the two Agassis. He also didn’t partake in the false bravado that athletes so often use to hide their fear, or if he did it was easy to see through it. He often looked scared, not concealing his anxiety very well. I’m not quite sure what it was about the man that I found so compelling. If memory serves, Agassi was the truly pivotal figure it seemed that few people were passionate Sampras fans, but people either loved or hated Agassi. It vividly reminded me of why I was so enthralled those many years ago.įirst, I’ll start by confessing that when it comes to Sampras versus Agassi, I always favored the latter. So I decided to travel back in time to the memorable years of must-see tennis and I ‘m excited to report that Open is every bit as thrilling as I could have hoped.

Over the ensuing years, I’ve come across enthusiastic recommendations that placed it amongst some of the greatest sports biographies ever written. As a result I didn’t pay much attention when Aggasi published his memoir to much acclaim in 2009. When Sampras retired in 2002 and Agassi followed him in 2006 my interest in professional tennis abruptly faded. I have to admit that from a tennis perspective, I haven’t really moved on from the years when Andre Aggasi and Pete Sampras battled for supremacy.

Andre agassi autobiography review