"Open"
by Andre Agassi

By Grace Fish

The media hype about "Open" created a buzz at school, at the club, and at dinner.

Playing tournament and high school tennis gives you a certain reputation at school. Your friends and teachers may not ask why your thumbs are bandaged, but they always want to know how you did in your last match. So, as a "tennis girl," everyone asked what I thought about Andre Agassi's new book, with its supposedly main revelation his drug use while still on the tour.

The shocking news became dinner conversation in my house. Was he really on meth? The buzz at school and at the tennis club was a combination of snide remarks, disgust, and disbelief. Why would Agassi deliberately scar his image? To me it seemed so selfish to say he hated tennis when I had learned to love tennis by watching him.

Then I saw him on 60 Minutes and actually opened the book, and something was immediately clear. Agassi's book wasn't at all about drugs. In fact drugs weren't mentioned for hundreds of pages. The book was an intimate story of the life and the struggles of an athlete.

I started not wanting to read it, but ended up underlining the pages. For sure there are many fantastic clues in this book on how to become a better player. But I also learned a new perspective on how to express the feelings that are poured into and sprout from a match.

One voice had been telling me I didn't want to read the book because I did not want to admit that the trials that invade every other part of our lives infect us on the court. But the other voice, which made it impossible to put Open down, told me to learn from what Agassi had given us. Rather than being upset that another sport hero had been pulled down from the tower of perfection, his story made me even more proud to have grown up watching him.

The match you watch on television doesn't tell you everything about the match.

So I say this book is a gift. It shows that tennis is not about the glamour of trophies or center court. It shows that tennis is an accumulation of trials and tests, sweat, exhaustion, and sometimes confusion. Yeah, kinda like life. Anyone who has played competitive tennis seriously knows it is a brutal sport. Physically, and especially mentally. I knew this. But the extreme level it can reach is revealed in the story of Andre's 2005 US Open match with Marcos Baghdattis.

The funny thing is that I remember skipping my seventh grade English homework to watch the match that night on TV. Not only that, I called my doubles partner on the phone, and we excitedly dissected every point.

But Andre's book told a very different story of the match I thought I was watching so closely. It reveals blow by blow what was going on in his mind and how the match pushed him--as well as Baghdatis--to the point of complete physical and emotional collapse. More amazing was what happened after. After sharing the experience of this incredible battle, these two warriors ended up holding holds lying nearly paralyzed on training tables in the locker room. This is only one example of the inside descriptions of his famous matches.

And there are many more details that make you feel as if you were right there in his life. Andre sometimes showered three times before matches, with each shower for a different time period and different purpose. He and he alone packed his tennis bag. He knew precisely where each item in the bag was located. And no one else was ever allowed to enter this sacred space.

It's possible shaking Andre's hand has changed my life.

With ever faithful coached Brad Gilbert and Darren Cahill, he closely studied and dissected opponents, constructed game plans with multiple options, and changed them based on the slightest nuances in the course of his matches.

The book shows how Andre saw every match as a test of wills against his opponents, but also against himself, his father, his past, his conflicting desires, and especially his body. My tennis hero says he hated (hates) the game. He took dangerous recreational drugs. He wanted to quit since he was seven. Despite this and more Agassi made it to number one, maintained the spot, and is considered one of the best players of all time. And after reading the book, I thought he was also one of the most humble and honest.

Then there was the night I met him last fall with my teammate and co-reviewer Alexandra Hills, and he signed my book. After an introduction from our high school coach John Yandell, he looked me in the eyes, smiled, extended his hand and said "Hi, I'm Andre." That moment convinced me that everything I had been thinking and feeling was true. On the way out of the book store I looked down at my hand, laughed and said "I am going to be better now." And by that I meant not just in tennis. PS: Check out the music video Tennis Hands in this month's issue--it's the story of our team's dream season! (Click Here.)

Grace Fish is a junior at University High School in San Francisco, California, a three year girls' tennis varsity starter, and a USTA Norcal tournament player. This year she was the co #1 singles player on a team that went 17-3, won two league titles and reached the final of the state sectional tournament. Grace's record in 2009 was 17-2 and her 3-year total is now 42-9. For the 2010 season, she has been named team captain. Andre Agassi was one of her first tennis idols.

If you have only read what the media has to say, you may have a completely inaccurate impression of this remarkable book. One of the most compelling sports autobiographies ever written, Open tells the story of Andre's amazing journey, both on and off the court. Open is packed with emotional insight, humor and the behind the scenes information rarely if ever revealed in professional sports.

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