Open

Agassi's autobiography, written with J. R. Moehringer, opens with the statement that he hated tennis, and the book is organised around that claim. It covers his father's regime, which had him hitting thousands of balls a day from early childhood against a machine his father modified to fire harder; the Bollettieri academy, which he describes as a prison; the early professional years and the image-driven marketing; the collapse in 1997 to a ranking of one hundred and forty-one; the methamphetamine use and the false explanation he gave to the tour, which he discloses in the book; and the return to the top ranking at the end of his career.

The material relevant beyond sport concerns performing at the highest level in something you did not choose and do not enjoy. Agassi describes the difference between the periods when he played for external reasons and the period after 1997, when he rebuilt the career deliberately with trainer Gil Reyes and coach Brad Gilbert and connected it to the school he founded in Las Vegas.

The account of Brad Gilbert's coaching is the most practically instructive section. Gilbert's argument was that Agassi was trying to hit perfect shots when he should be making the opponent uncomfortable, and that winning ugly against a better player was the objective rather than playing well.

Moehringer's involvement produces prose better than any athlete would write alone, and readers should note that this shapes the material. The book is a self-account with obvious interests, particularly regarding the drug disclosure and his first marriage. It remains one of the most honest accounts of elite performance and of the cost of a life directed by someone else.