Open by Andre Agassi

612 Words3 Pages
After reading Andre Agassi's book I am astonished to find that one can complete such perfection in a life time. Andre Agassi had his life mapped out before he had left his mothers womb. He was forced to play tennis and become a tennis legend by his rather demanding father and was robber of his childhood in the process. By the age of seven Andre was hitting 2500 tennis balls a day that were being flung at him by 'the dragon' (a very powerful base ball launcher). As a child Andre never liked tennis, but was just expected to play it and play it well. School, friends, social life and especially thinking were considered distractions by his father, who terrified Andre's entire family. When his sisters rebelled and his older brother, Philly, finally lacked the 'killer instinct', Andre became his father's obsession and the one who was greatly expected to beat other boys his age and even grown men of which he was not. At the age of twelve Andre went to Australia and won all of his tournaments even those against boys twice his age. After this his father sent him off to tennis school the Bollettieri Academy in Florida. It was here his true talent began to bloom, but his life darkened. Andre began wearing eyeliner and got a mohawk, but that was only the beginning. Andre described tennis as a lonely sport, and only now do i understand why people drink till they're wasted and take drugs such as dope. Andre felt more that unhappy, and was driving lower and lower for the only thing he could do was play tennis. After dropping school during ninth grade he had nothing to keep him going except tennis. Nobody stopped him doing anything as long as he won his matches. I thought this freedom to be a crazy thing, for Andre was still only a boy and boys without their mothers do seem to do crazy things. Andre won his first grand slam in Europe and another two after that which

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