Mid eighties and early nineties was the time I formed my idols for life. I think I should start by giving a brief account of who they were. In soccer, pocket sized Maradona brought the whole world down with his magical left foot in 1986, in cricket a lad from Haryana decided to play ‘angry young man’ on cricket field.
And entertained the masses with his heroics seldom done before or since, in silver screen another tall lanky man with deep baritone took on the world single-handedly and proposed his ladies the way he would ‘wasool’ his ‘hafta’ and in tennis an unassuming American nicknamed ‘Pistol Pete’ thundered the tennis court with his breathtaking serve, delicate volleys.
Ground shattering smashes and explosive forehand. Blame it on the quality of these larger than life personalities or stubbornness of my character – these idols have endured in my life and though I have been a great admirer of skills of Messi, exploits of Tendulkar, perfectionism of Aamir Khan or genius of Federer, I have resisted the temptation of replacing my icons with newer breed.
Andre Agassi was a significant personality of those days and though in tennis court he often finished second best to his nemesis Sampras, he made that up through his colourful attire, rebellious hairstyle and gorgeous girlfriend(s). Thus, when he came up with his autobiography ‘Open’ which was lapped up by tennis lovers around the world, I could not resist the temptation of reliving my adolescent days.
The book provides insight to life of Agassi and his road to becoming one of the greatest tennis players of all time. We are struck by his candour while discussing the events of his early life and could empathise with the pain of little Andre who saw virtually no childhood, thanks to his ambitious father. The fact that he grew to hate tennis in spite of being a top tennis player of the world should open our eyes – do we not often subject our children to similar ordeals? The pressure to excel in education or in some other field(the trend has increased with TV backed sponsoring of realty shows and talent hunts) is today so great on children that they are today growing up without experiencing the fun and adventure that we normally associate with childhood.
Like all true Champions, Andre Agassi’s greatest achievement has been the way he rose once more to pinnacle of glory after almost everyone had written obituary of his tennis career. Another heartwarming aspect of Andre Agassi the person is the fact that he has stayed loyal to his friends throughout ups and downs of life. Also, in the later part of his life, he found the meaning of his life through helping less privileged children and he deserves a standing ovation for the effort.
Another very well written part of the book is the part in which he woos Steffi Graf. Like entire generation of male tennis lovers of that era, Andre seemed to be a wide eyed fan of Steffi whose blistering forehand was matched by her smashing good looks. Till the end of the book and even post marriage and children, he remained her wide eyed admirer – that goes to show that Steffi Graf is either as good a homemaker as she was a tennis player or that her forehand remains a formidable weapon even without tennis racket. However, there are some parts of the book which left me a little disturbed as well as disappointed. The way he has depicted his married life with famous actress Brooke Shields leaves a bitter taste in the mouth. It is clear that Andre and Brooke are two incompatible personalities and one can hardly blame Brooke Shields for having taste for literature or adventurous sports but Agassi has portrayed these as a flaw in Brooke Shields character. Similarly, the fact that Pete Sampras only paid 1$ as tip should not had prompted Agassi to declare in glee that he is so much better than Sampras(not exactly in these words but close enough). Nor should he have lectured on pitfalls of marrying an actress after Sampras conveyed him his decision of marrying his long term girlfriend. Rather we would have him discussing regarding some of his matches in greater detail and analysing the game of the great tennis players of his generation. After all, we know Andre Agassi only because of his tennis and we would rather hear more about tennis from him.
Still, ‘Open’ remains an important contribution to sports literature for its nice, easy flowing narration, new insights it provided on life of a great sportsman and candour of the author in describing his life and views.