Andre Agassi was the bad boy who loathed tennis, resented his father, and used crystal
meth before retiring as an eight-time Grand Slam champion at the US Open 16 years ago.
So much of his life has been spent in the spotlight. The numerous highs and lows on
and off the court throughout his journey from tennis brat
to elder statesman, that one may question how much more could be said about it all.
There is, as it turns out, more. So, let's get right to it.
AGASSI'S RELATIONSHIP WITH HIS FATHER
Andre Agassi claimed in his book that he always despised tennis with a dark and secret passion.
He discussed his upbringing and his unorthodox Armenian father, Emmanuel Mike Agassi,
who immigrated to the United States from Iran, where he was a professional boxer.
His father, who was overly demanding and emotionally abusive to the entire family,
groomed young Agassi for tennis greatness by constructing a tennis court in their backyard
and sending him to tennis boarding school under the supervision of Nick Bollettieri,
who later coached and managed part of his professional career.
Agassi described his father as naturally aggressive and recalled being in the car
with him when his father brandished a firearm at another motorist. He wrote
about earning money by hustling people on tennis courts and recalled beating former
NFL great Jim Brown in a match when he was 9 years old to win a $500 bet for his dad.
After winning his first Grand Slam championship at Wimbledon in 1992,
Agassi revealed a phone chat with his father.
He stated that his father's initial response was that he had no right to lose the fourth set.
His stated thesis is that the game he mastered was a prison
from which he spent 30 years attempting to escape.
His first prison was the backyard court erected by his immigrant father, Mike,
behind the family's run-down house on the arid outskirts of Las Vegas.
Mike Agassi was desperate to raise a champion and put all four of his children through
torturous training, including pulling them out of school for additional practice time.
The three eldest all buckled under the strain.
Agassi, the fourth kid, had preternatural hand-eye coordination,
which he honed in daily sessions in which he swatted as many as 2,500 balls spewed forth
by a machine at speeds of up to 110 miles per hour, at angles so acute that 7-year-old Andre
had to swing the instant the ball landed. Agassi's striking skill would eventually
render opponents defenseless as even their most ferocious shots came crashing back.
All of this was nurturing, at least in comparison to his next incarceration at the Florida tennis
academy, or glorified prison camp, run by Nick Bollettieri, an entrepreneur paid
thousands of dollars by parents who sent their children away for months of continuous drilling,
motivational psychology lectures, and nights spent in barracks-like dorms.
"The relentless pressure, fierce competitiveness, and complete absence of adult supervision
gradually transformed us into animals," Agassi explained.
He rebelled by drinking, fighting, and getting body piercings.
MIKE AGASSI RESPONSE TO HIS SON
Mike Agassi decided to grant an interview to the Italian publication The Republic from his
beautiful mansion in Las Vegas in April 2015, where he acknowledged his drastic measures
after the anger of his son's biography thrust him into the center of the spotlight.
Mike revealed that he sacrificed three children because he wanted them to become
great tennis players. According to him, the first, Rita, was very strong,
but Pancho Gonzales, a former tennis champion, took her away.
Mike also claimed that his second kid, Phillip,
was a good player but was discouraged by his sister. He then said Tami was brought,
but she had no physique, and she preferred to study. Lastly Andre.
According to Mike, Andre wasn't necessarily sacrificed because he
ended up with a lot of money. He claimed Andre was generous, and when he was seven years old,
He told him he would become world number one.
Mike then justified his actions saying, "Was I a tyrant? Yes. Was I harsh and unyielding? Yes. But,
again, a father, a parent with his athlete son, is preferable to a coach. "Reveal yourselves,
do not allow your children to be cheated by technical centers, specialist schools,
or gurus," I tell today's parents. If they love, it's by contract, not by blood."
"Bollettieri was given the opportunity to train my kid for a few months.
I saw what they didn't want to see when I returned with him;
he exclusively played from the baseline. No serve, no volley, and no blow to flight. My
kid then did unusual things like bleached hair in addition to the courts at the academy."
"The major distinction is that a parent loves his children, whereas a coach does
it for financial gain." Bollettieri ruined Andre's life and even persuaded him to change materials.
My son took a million dollars and Nick, a wad. But who was I to convince Andre
that he was wrong? "In my opinion, there is always a parent behind a child's achievement."
"Perhaps for the same reason that I, as an Iranian boxer, competed in two Olympics
without ever earning a medal." During the interview, he concluded by saying that if
he could go back in time, he would become the monster and do exactly the same thing.
Making it known that he has no regrets.
AGASSI'S SECRET MEDICAL CONDITION Because Agassi was born with spondylolisthesis,
a spinal ailment in which one vertebra separates from the other, leaving less
space for the spinal column's nerves, even the tiniest misstep put him in excruciating pain.
So, throughout the course of a career in which he was always on the move, he had to
find methods to adapt; cortisone injections, changing his game before he finally retired.
In an excerpt from his book, Agassi talked about a day during his final tournament,
the 2006 US Open, how he psychologically and physically prepared for the emotional
uncertainty of retiring from the game he both loved and despised.
He said, "I open my eyes and don't know where I am or who I am. I've spent half my
life without knowing, so it's not all that odd. Still,
something is off about this. This uncertainty is much more terrifying. More comprehensive."
"I raise my head. I'm on the floor next to the bed. Now I remember. In the middle of the night,
I shifted from my bed to the floor. That's what I do most nights."
"I count to three, then begin the lengthy, laborious process of standing," Agassi recounted.
I turn onto my side, curl into the fetal position, and then flip over onto
my stomach with a cough and sigh. Now I'm just waiting for the blood to start pumping again."
Agassi said that despite the fact that he was thirty-six at the time,
he felt ninety-six. "My body no longer feels like my body, especially in the morning,
after three decades of sprinting, stopping on a dime, leaping high,
and landing hard." As a result, my mind no longer feels like my mind."
He said that when he first opened his eyes, he felt like a stranger to himself and that
while the experience wasn't new, it was stronger in the mornings.
"I rapidly ran through the basic facts," he recalled.
"Andre Agassi is my name. Stefanie Graf is the name of my wife. We have two children,
a five-year-old boy and a three-year-old daughter. We live in Las Vegas, Nevada, but are now staying
in a suite at the Four Seasons in New York City while I compete in the 2006 US Open.
My final US Open. It was, in fact, my final tournament. I make a career playing tennis,
despite the fact that I despise tennis and have always despised it."
"As the final piece of my identity fits into place, I fall to my knees and plead,
'Please let this be finished,' in hushed tones.
Agassi also admitted to using crystal meth, among other things.
AGASSI'S REVELATION ABOUT USING CRYSTAL METH His stellar achievements were once again clouded,
this time by disclosures that he sought consolation in crystal meth given by his assistant
during a difficult phase and then lied about it to tennis officials to escape a three-month ban.
He mentioned using crystal meth in his book "A tidal surge of bliss that wipes away every bad
idea in my mind," he confessed. I've never felt so alive, so hopeful — or had so much energy."
"I receive an irrefutable joy from harming myself and reducing my career, aside from the
buzz of being high," Agassi revealed. "The bodily consequences, on the other hand, are horrifying.
I'm an alien after two days of being high and not sleeping. I have the guts to question
why I am so miserable. My body should be able to withstand this since I'm an athlete."
Agassi claims he wrote to the ATP Tour to explain his positive test in 1997 and that "the major
untruth in the letter" was that he said he drank a soda laced with meth by his aide by mistake.
At his peak, Agassi was one of the most popular players on tour, and his flowing,
long locks contributed to his heartthrob image. However, the seven-time Grand Slam winner was
concealing a secret: he was balding. In 1990, it made him lose the French Open championship.
Did Mike Agassi's strict training make Andre a better player? Comment below!