Finished "Open" last night. I realize I'm way late to the party, this book having come out in Nov. '09, but I'm not really a non-fiction book reader. I'm still very glad to have read this, Andre's story.
Why should I, or we, care? Why should anyone at all, tennis fan or not, care about Andre Agassi's life, let alone buy his book? Because this isn't just the "story" of a tennis player or just a story at all. Andres life covers a lot of real estate, both literally and figuratively. From Las Vegas More...

My old editor always said that I should try to write like anyone, it should be J.R. Moehringer. So when this book came out--even though I'm a sub-par tennis player--I was excited. The second piece of information that made me want to read this book was Jara's review: "After finishing this I appreciate Agassi more as a human than a tennis player." That got me really curious.

A couple things that stood out to me after reading this: Agassi loses--a lot. Over and over and over. Yes there are the few More...

This book kept me awake at night. I felt compelled to finish it in 2 days ("straight sets" maybe? - not my fault for the metaphor).
I might as well add that I was surprised to find out that Agassi fundamentally hates tennis and that he was an underachiever - he could have done (much) better. The way his father forced him to train as a little boy and the life he led as a tennis pro were also very interesting to know.

Non é che propriamente l'ho letto, no, l'ho divorato, e manco ho fatto indigestione. Scrive bene il ghost writer che non é nemmeno tanto ghost, alla fine del libro c'é il nome e cognome e tanti ringraziamenti dell'Agassi, e non é uno da niente ma uno che ha vinto il Pulitzer... e quindi.

Per chi ama il tennis é una droga sto libro.

L'enfant terrible du tennis raccontato da lui stesso medesimo.

Si certo, certo, é una storia molto americana, il farsi da sé, l'ascesa, la caduta e la risalita, storia d More...

While browsing my next buy, I had stumbled upon this one a number of times, before I finally decided to buy and read it last week. Time and money well spent.
So, what is the book about? First, it is not a story of a flawless man or an impeccable athlete. It is one of a confused, rebellious and an ever evolving man in search of himself, who by the way, plays great tennis. Second, it is also not a blow-by-blow account of tennis matches. But, a diary of his love-hate relationship with tennis; where More...

Open space


il tennis può essere uno sport
o anche una religione
un modo per fare soldi
o anche un modo per dimostrare qualcosa
quello che però il tennis non può essere mai è un motivo
una ragione per perdere la vita, l'identità e tutto quel che ci sarebbe dovuto per diritto di nascita: un Io

Agassi si fa aiutare da uno che la penna la sa usare davvero per raccontare la sua vita abusata
il suo successo amaro perchè mai cercato, un successo che significa una rinuncia al suo vero io
ogni vittoria lo allonta More...

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. The opportunity to read about a sport star's life from the inside is always a more engaging and involving experience. It shatters the many impressions we carry and makes him/her so much more human.

The opening of the book with the Agassi vs Baghdatis match is brilliant. I immediately wanted to, and did, watch the match on Youtube. It gave me a whole new perspective to watch a match after I knew what was going on in the player's mind.

The book brings out ho More...

When i picked up this book the name OPEN suggested Andre will discuss about his prolong tennis career, his rivalry with Pete Sampras and many nail biting matches at the 4 grand slams or the OPENS, but from the first page till the end it was more about Agassi's fight with his inner self, his projection to the outer world and how wins through life after numerous failures. The title OPEN actually signifies how with course of time Andre puts his inner feeling out in the open with his near and dear o More...

Okay, I'm not a big autobiography fan, let alone tennis fan. I simply don't have the patience to sit through a match, not even understand the scoring. Whole tennis is mystery to me, just like golf and cricket.
Than friends suggested me the "Open" (köszi Niki & Zsófi!), and said it's f@ing great. Oh, well, at least I knew who Andre Agassi is, knew some about him, caught some glimpses of his games back then. But still...
And yeah, this book gets you, catches is. And yes, definitely difficult to More...

First of all, let me say I am not a tennis fan. At all. I don't know the terminology, and I have no idea what the rules are. However, I quite liked this book and genuinely didn't mind all the tennis stuff.

For the first half of the book I sort of thought that Andre sounded like such a "guy." But not in a good way if you know what I'm saying. But man, he won me over by the end! Now he seems like a little softie to me and I'm slightly obsessed with googling him. He seems like a good person, and he More...

«Did you know that Agassi is an Iranian surname? It should be pronounced Agassì, with the stress on the last "i"».

No, I didn't know that when I was 12. But I kept that in mind, as you can read.
Now, the same fact that, back in 1994, my friend Amir (owner of an Iranian and final "i" stressed surname himself) told me something on Andre Agassi and I knew who that guy was means something.

One year before our teens, Amir and I were all but into tennis. Not that we didn't care about sports - football, b More...

"The scoreboard says I lost today, but what the scoreboard doesn't say it is what I have found. Over the last twenty-one years I have found loyalty: You have pulled me on the court, and also in life. I have found inspiration: You have willed me to succeed, sometimes even in my lowest moments. And I have found generosity: You have given me your shoulders to stand on, to reach for my dreams - dreams I could have never reached without you. Over the last twenty-one years I have found you, and will t More...

This is one is surely for all those skeptics who had that doubt on whether he deserved this esteem and the Honey Steffi graff :)

The Autobiography which I longed to read and Im Happy that my wallet was Open for Open.

The moment I started this , I went straight to the days were I used to bunk classes, skip food, Hold my bowels, prorogue almost anything Just to witness the charm this guy was evincing on the court.

The expectation rose within me as I tried to stop envisage my past wid agassi and start More...

I have a checkered past with Andre Agassi. Having been a fan of pro-tennis since I was a kid, I was intrigued with Agassi when he debuted on the tour (I'll even admit to owning a pair of those denim shorts), but somewhere along the way something went astray and it took to the last couple of years of his career for me to re-warm up to him. Contributing to that personal opinion decline was observing him "behind the scenes" when I dabbled as a tennis writer/photographer for in the mid-/late-1990s, More...

From the very beginning this book feels like it is honest and open. Sometimes I thought "uh-oh, not sure he should say that". But he did, and I never felt like he was holding back on his true feelings.

Andre seems to have been searching for who he was most of his life. I was happy to see that he was able to find himself and be happy with his life and all the pain, sorrows, heartaches, and the joys, triumphs and love that came with it.

My favorite story is when Stephanie's father meets Andre's fath More...

I always liked Agassi and this book did not disappoint me. It's interesting to read the back story of some of his greatest wins and losses. I never knew that he wore a rug! I remember watching his last U S Open final against Federer and cheering for him, thinking he might actually do it. I was at Wimbledon and saw his last victory there. And I was at the open when he lost his last match, but over on Louis Armstrong as we all followed the score of his match on Arthur Ashe. It was a fun read.

Slightly longer than I would have liked and think necessary, it was definitely an interesting read. Agassi hates tennis, and he has no qualms in saying it, repeatedly. As the story progresses though, you see how that hate changes to love only in that he loves what he can do for others while he's playing tennis. It also provided a lot of background on the why of his career path and its ups and downs. Oh yeah, and Jimmy Connors is a dick.

Choosing JR Moehringer to write his autobiography was Agassi's genius stroke. This is not a 'comfortable' book to read. Agassi's pain and sense of isolation, whether on the court or in his personal life, is constant. Others have recorded their childhood of involuntary servitude to a parents' obsession, but this is the best-written.

The last 200 pages of this book are very engrossing and have kept me from doing anything else. I am not an ardent Tennis fan but this book made me aware of what every player goes through - physically and emotionally to become what they are. Agassi's narration is smooth,engaging and very candid. One striking pattern that I found in his description of the countless matches he played is how vividly he remembered every shot, every move and every thought while playing those shots! His humility shines More...

It was hard to put this one down. It was well written and a very easy read. Andre Agassi has led a very interesting life.

Interesting life story of what he overcame and created.

reading (or actually listening to) Open was hard work and sometimes I had to take a deep breath before I dug in again. Agassi's story is complicated and frequently painful. It drained my energy to learn about his excruciating relationship with his father, the tremendous physical effort required to be a top tennis star, and the ups and downs of his career and life. But in the end Open was a rewarding and memorable book. and please be sure also to read The Tender Bar: A Memoir, by Agassi's co-auth More...

This is a very engaging account of Agassi's life. Agassi writes of his love-hate relationship with tennis, starting with his high pressured childhood with his father pushing him towards tennis success, through his rebellious life on the tennis tour, and ultimately emotional maturity. The book is filled with rich characters, such as Gil, Agassi's physical trainer, closest friend, and surrogate father, and Brad Gilbert, Agassi's no-nonsense coach. Agassi does seem to be very emotionally open and s More...

This book Open by Andre Agassi published by Knopf is an autobiography by the eight grand slam winning tennis player Andre Agassi.

The Open being the first book written by Agassi is truly amazing. Through out the novel I was reminded of my personal experiences on the court, creating a very personal and relatable feel. This was due to the very descriptive story format the book was written in. It is easy to compare this book to your own personal athletic life style where you insult and speak the tru More...

Andre Agassi is so well known that I think this biography will be interesting to people who aren't tennis fans, but if you do enjoying watching pro tennis this is a must read.

The book gives an insider's look at pro tennis (and the path to becoming a pro), and like so many seemingly glamorous professions, it is anything but... From an early age, Agassi struggles to find the motivation to train and keep playing, and to define himself and find meaning in his life. The work that he puts into his gam More...

A memoir so good I have to bring my long break from "Goodreads" additions to an end!

I did become incredulous not too far into this book that it was far too well laid out and eloquent to be by Agassi alone, regardless of how bright and driven he is. It's not, as J R Moehringer - a very good writer and Pulitzer Prize winning journalist - helped. It becomes obvious too that extensive time and work was spent reviewing videotaped matches of Agassi's, as the level of detail often given on each nuance More...

A heart warming and inspiring book about life, its challenges, contradictions and rewards. Throughout this entire book I was won over by the language, only to realize at the end that it was not entirely Andre's words. Still, this is very much his life, told in a beautiful and moving way, with intricate details so vividly captured. This is a story of determination, finding meaning and relentlessly pursuing the fairy tale ending. This is a story of mistakes, finding one's true path, and riding the More...

Andre Agassi’s Open is a unique, eye-opening look into the life of Andre Agassi and the world of professional tennis. It provides a very interesting perspective of fame and fulfillment, success and failure, beating and being beaten. Open follows Agassi’s difficult childhood, extreme fame, and career highs and lows. It shows the true feelings, trials, and tribulations of a man who seemed to have it all, though that was far from the truth.

Andre Agassi never wanted to play tennis. Born to a tennis More...

Il 2013 inizia alla grande con la lettura di "Open" di Andre Agassi. Non che non lo sapessi, anzi; arriva un punto in cui puoi predire che un libro ti piacerà un sacco dal come sei arrivato a conoscere della sua esistenza, dalla sinossi, dall'autore, da quel che se ne dice e dalla copertina. Magari non puoi predirlo con tutti i libri, ma ci sono quelli che sai che ti piaceranno un sacco. Come "Open".
Adoro le opere che parlano di uno sport e sono pensati per essere piacevoli anche per chi non co More...

Loy Machedo’s Book Review – Open: An Autobiography by Andre Agassi

After reading Pete Sampras ‘A Champion's Mind: Lessons from a Life in Tennis’ I was pretty skeptical about reading another Tennis Memoir. I didn’t want to go through page after page of ‘I had a match with him and him and him’ and then bore the bejesus out of my life. So Andre Agassi’s book caught the dust of ignorance and time among the many books I had not read. I really was in no mood of getting bored.

Eventually, I decided it More...