I’m don’t care for sports, so it felt weird for me to tune into a thick biography of some tennis star I’ve never heard of. But I’ve heard good thinks from reliable sources so I decided to go for it.
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I’m glad I did!
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Andre Agassi’s father was a former boxer with a failed career. A bitter and violent man than thought the world was against him. That Andre had a knack for tennis made him see his chance to get even.
His put him in hard training with the goal to make him the best in the world and there was little Andre could do about it. Tennis became his prison. And he hated it.
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The sad thing about the story is that when Agassi gets old enough to break free from his fathers reign, he realize that he has no where to go and that tennis is all he’s got. He has no skills and no education because he spent whole life at the court. So he continues to do the one thing he knows how, even though he despises it.
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The book got me thinking about his fans. They looked up to him, imitated his dress and style, and never missed one of his games. I wonder what it feels like to learn that your idol actually hated what you admired him/her for “with a dark and secret passion”.
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It’s a sad but interesting and involving story. A good read even for someone who couldn’t care less about tennis. Here are some notes:
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📝 After winning Wimbledon: “I Thought winning would change things. But instead it felt like I was let in on a dirty little secret. Winning changes nothing…”
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📝”A loss feels bad more and longer than a win feels good.”
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📝 “Fame becomes the norm fast. We hear that money can’t buy happiness but we don’t believe it until we experience it.”
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📝 “Fear is like a gateway drug. Take a small hit and you run the risk of doing it again in bigger and bigger doses.”
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4/5
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