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Andre Agassi autobiography "Open"

62K views 214 replies 26 participants last post by  stef-fan 
#1 ·
http://www.celebritybooksigningsandevents.com/events


Okay, who is going with me to the Century City Borders signing in LA on Nov 18th???!!! The bad thing is that the book is definitely going to be cheaper at Costco - but it'll cost me more to travel to Summerlin to buy it, so I guess I'll just have to see him in LA!

I'm getting excited.

Nancy J

Updated 10/18/09


Andre Agassi, tennis great, signing copies of Open: An Autobiography

* 11/12/09 12:30 PM at Barnes & Noble – Fifth Avenue. New York, NY.
* 11/13/09 7:00 PM at Indigo Books - Bloor Street. Toronto, Onatrio.
* 11/15/09 2:00 PM at Books-A-Million - Sawgrass Mills Mall. Sunrise, FL.
* 11/18/09 7:00 PM at Borders Books - Santa Monica Blvd. Los Angeles, CA.
* 11/20/09 7:00 PM at Books Inc. - Van Ness Avenue. San Francisco, CA.
* 11/21/09 1:30 PM at Kepler's Books - El Camino Real. Menlo Park, CA.
* 11/22/09 1:00 PM at Costco – South Pavilion Drive. Las Vegas, NV.
 
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#4 ·
Too bad, as I'd love to meet both of you! Maybe he'll come to one or both of your areas. It could happen! :)!

Here's another article:

http://www.miamiherald.com/sports/story/1294366.html

Posted on Thursday, 10.22.09

Agassi's book tour to hit South Florida
BY MICHELLE KAUFMAN
mkaufman@MiamiHerald.com

Andre Agassi has stayed out of the limelight since his 2007 retirement, but plan to see a lot more of him in the coming weeks as he embarks on a cross-country tour to promote his autobiography Open, which hits bookstores Nov. 9.

Agassi will be at Books-A-Million in Sawgrass Mills Mall from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Nov. 15 and at Temple Judea in Coral Gables at 6:30 p.m. Nov. 16 for a Books & Books-sponsored event that includes a 45-minute interview with Miami Herald columnist Edwin Pope (go to booksandbooks.com for information on tickets).

This weekend, Agassi will be in Macau for a Sunday exhibition against his former rival Pete Sampras. He will appear in upcoming editions of People magazine and Sports Illustrated and on 60 Minutes. Agassi made headlines this week for suggesting that era of domination by Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal could be coming to a close as younger players come along and Nadal deals with knee injuries.

``Now we have possibly the changing of the guard,'' Agassi told reporters in Hong Kong during a teleconference.

``You have those top two who are now losing ground to the likes of [Novak] Djokovic and [Andy] Murray and [Juan Martin] del Potro.''

Agassi said Federer, 28, ``still has the chance to do some more special things,'' but he faces more rivals than just Nadal. He said Murray, the only top-six player not to win a Grand Slam title, is primed to make a breakthrough.

``This is going to be a crucial time in his career, and I predict the next year will determine his career one way or another,'' Agassi said of Murray. ``He has a lot of reasons, motivations and skills that can help him to accomplish a great deal, but he has to be willing to push to get over the next hump. Do I think he can do it? Absolutely. Do I expect him to do it? I really do.''
 
#10 ·
Holy cow! Crystal Meth?! Lots of articles popping up today (see a short one below) after a publicist Tweeted about this! SI and People to have articles on the book THIS week! If anyone gets their copy sooner than Thurs/Friday (when they hit the stands in my area) please post.

http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/tennis/news/story?id=4600027

Updated: October 27, 2009, 5:03 PM ET
Agassi says he used crystal meth in '97
Comment Email Print Share
ESPN.com news services
Andre Agassi used crystal meth while he was playing professional tennis, according to a new autobiography to be released next month.


Agassi
The information was confirmed by the director of media relations at Knopf, a division of Random House which is publishing the book, according to a report in the New York Daily News. It was first publicized widely by Sports Illustrated writer Richard Deitsch in a Twitter post.

The Daily News said that the year was 1997.

"FYI: There's an off-the-charts book excerpt from Andre Agassi in the forthcoming SI: He admits to taking crystal meth during his career," Deitsch wrote Tuesday morning. The post was later deleted. The excerpt of the book is due out later this week in Sports Illustrated and People magazines.

"Those excerpts contain revelations about Andre's use of crystal meth when he was a tennis player," said Paul Bogaards of Knopf, according to the Daily News.

Agassi had won the Olympic gold medal in the 1996 Atlanta Games, but didn't win a major in 1997. His next major came at the 1999 French Open. He won the U.S. Open later that year and went on to win three more Australian Open titles before retiring in 2006. He won more than $30 million in his career, and eight major singles titles.

He is currently married to former Grand Slam champion Steffi Graf. They have two children.

The book, titled "Open: An Autobiography," is due out on Nov. 9.
 
#15 · (Edited)
#23 ·
People Magazine – November 9, 2009

ANDRE AGASSI OPENS UP

In a stunningly candid memoir, tennis champ Andre Agassi discusses his marriage to Brooke Shields, the truth about his famous hair – and how crystal meth nearly derailed his career.

He was the athlete as rock star, a cocky rebel with shaggy locks and go-for-broke style. Yet Andre Agassi’s wild-child image – and a burning drive that earned him eight Grand slams titles – masked an inner torment he kept hidden throughout his 20- year career and which he reveals only now in his autobiography, Open. “If you’re going to tell your story, you owe it to yourself to tell it honestly,” Agassi, 39, explained to PEOPLE’s Alex Tresniowski. “Especially if you’re going to call it Open.”

Agassi, who retired in 2006, says he spent thousands of hours “downloading my life and finding out the arc of it. I knew my stories, but what was my story?” He explored his deep ambivalence toward tennis and how his demanding father pushed him into the sport. “I never chose this life, so I resented it,” he says. “It came with a huge price tag.” In 1997 he dropped to no. 141 in the world rankings; by then he was already using crystal meth. “It was periodic for a year or so,” he says. “I can’t speak to addiction, but a lot of people would say that if you’re using anything as an escape, you have a problem.” Scared straight after flunking a drug test, he quite and rededicated himself to his sport – and found happiness with Steffi Graf, whom he married in 2001 (they live in Las Vegas with their children Jaden, 8, and Jaz, 6.)

Agassi says he consulted with first wife Brooke Shields before writing about their rocky two-year marriage. “We spent many hours [on it],” he says. “A lot of our recollections were the same, but not the interpretations.” In the end, he says, Shields complimented “the beautiful nature” of the book. “I tried to turn a harder lens on myself,” says Agassi, “than on anyone else.”

I’m seven years old, talking to myself, because I’m scared, and because I’m the only person who listens to me. Under my breath I whisper: Just quit, Andre, just give up. Put down your racket and walk off this court, right now. Wouldn’t that feel like heaven?

But I can’t/ Not only would my father chase me around the house with my racket, but something in my gut won’t let me. I hate tennis, hate it with all my heart, and still I keep playing, because I have no choice. I keep begging myself to stop, and I keep playing, and this gap, this contradiction between what I want to do and what I actually do, feels like the core of my life. My arm feels like it’s going to fall off. I want to ask, How much longer, Pops?

No answer.

I get an idea. Accidentally on purpose, I hit a ball high over the fence. I catch it on the rim of the racket, so it sounds like a misfire. My father sees the ball leave the court. He curses. But he heard the ball hit wood, so he knows it was an accident. He stomps out of the yard. I now have four and a half minutes to catch my breath and watch the hawks circling overhead.

My father likes to shoot hawks with his rifle. He doesn’t like them because they swoop down on mice and other defenseless creatures. He can’t stand the thought of something strong preying on something weak. Of course he has no qualms about preying on me.

Agassi quits school in the ninth grade and turns pro at 16. His looks and style attract nearly as much attention as his game – particularly his hair, which he wears long. In fact, he is going prematurely bald and has to wear a hairpiece, even while playing.

The night before the 1990 French Open, I’m taking a shower and I feel my hairpiece suddenly disintegrate in my hands. The weave is coming undone – the damned thing is falling apart. I summon my brother Philly to my hotel room. Disaster, I tell him. My hairpiece – look! He examines it. We’ll clip it in place, he says.

He runs all over Paris looking for bobby pins. He can’t find any. In the hotel lobby he bumps into Chris Evert and asks her for bobby pins. She doesn’t have any. At last he finds a bag full. He helps me reconfigure the hairpiece and set it in place. Will it hold? I ask. Yeah, yeah. Just don’t move around a lot. We both laugh.

Of course I could play without my hairpiece. But after months of derision, criticism, mockery, I’m too self-conscious. Image is Everything? What would they say if they knew? Win or lose, they wouldn’t talk about my game. They’d only talk about my hair. I can close my eyes and almost hear it. And I know I can’t take it.

Set up by a mutual friend, Agassi and actress Brooke Shields exchange faxes before their first date in Los Angeles shortly after Christmas 1993.

We go to a little Italian joint on San Vicente. We say most of the same things we’ve said by fax, but now, in person, over plates of pasta, they sound different, more intimate. There is nuance now, subtext, body language, and pheromones. Three hours pass in a millisecond.

We discover that, despite our outwardly different lives, we share similar starting points. She knows what it’s like to grow up with a brash, ambitious, abrasive stage parent. Her mother has been her manager since Brooke was eleven months old. The difference: her mother still manages her. And they’re nearly broke, because Brooke’s career is slumping. She does coffee commercials in Europe to pay the mortgage. She says things like this, startlingly candid. I wish I could be half as open. I can’t tell her much about my own torments, though I can’t avoid admitting that I hate tennis. She laughs. You don’t actually hate tennis.

Yes.

But you don’t hate hate it.

I do. I hate it.

My third date with Brooke. We’re kissing, on the verge, but first I need to tell her the truth about my hair. She can sense that I have something on my mind. What’s wrong? She asks.

I haven’t been completely honest with you.

We’re lying on a couch. I sit up, punch a pillow, take a breath.

Andre, what is it?

This isn’t easy to admit, Brooke. But, look, I’ve been losing my hair for quite some time and I wear a hair-piece to cover it up.

I reach out, take her hand, put it on my hairpiece. She smiles. I had a feeling, she says. It’s no big deal. It’s your eyes I find attractive. And your heart. Not your hair.

Shields persuades him to shave his head, to his great relief. But by then cracks are already starting to show in their relationship.

The producers of Friends have asked Brooke to [be a guest on the show]. The actor playing Joey seems like a nice enough guy. When the scene starts, however, I realize I’m going to have to kick his ass. Apparently the script calls for Brooke to grab Joey’s hand and lick it. But she takes it one step further, devouring his hand like an ice-cream cone. Brooke is laughing. Joey is laughing. I’m staring, wide-eyed. Brooke didn’t mention anything about hand licking. On the next take, Brooke takes Joey’s hand and puts it in her mouth, up to the knuckles. I jump out of my seat, push through a side door. Behind me comes Brooke. She grabs my arm and asks, Where are you going? I don’t want to watch you lick that man’s hand, I say. Don’t do this, Brooke says. Me? Me? I’m not doing anything. Go back and enjoy yourselves. Have some more hand. I’m out of here.

Despite escalating tensions, Agassi proposes and the couple set a date.

My wedding looms. I think all the time about postponing it, or calling it off altogether, but I don’t know how. One day I’m watching TV with Slim, my assistant. During a commercial Slim says, You want to get high with me?

High? On what?

Gack.

What the hell’s gack?

Crystal meth.

Why do they call it gack?

Because when you’re high, your mind is going so fast, all you can say is gack, gack, gack.

That’s how I feel all the time. What’s the point?

Make you feel like Superman, dude. I’m telling you.

As if they’re coming out of someone else’s mouth, I hear these words: You know what? Yeah. Let’s get high.

Slim dumps a small pile of powder on the coffee table. He cuts it, I snort some. There is a moment of regret, followed by vast sadness. Then comes a tidal wave of euphoria. I’ve never felt so alive, so hopeful – and above all, I’ve never felt such energy. I don’t sleep for two days. Playing weeks later, I struggle. Afterward, reporters ask if I’m OK. They’re actually concerned. Brooke is remarkably unconcerned. Her oblivion is partly due to the wedding planning, but also her rigorous premarital training regimen. For motivation, she tapes a photo on the refrigerator door. It’s a photo of the perfect woman, she says. The perfect woman with the perfect legs – the legs Brooke wants. The photo is Steffi Graf.

Agassi and Shields wed in April 1997. At the nearly 6-ft.- tall bride’s request, he’s wearing shoes with lifts.

That summer, Brooke is in Los Angeles, but I spend most of my time in Vegas. Slim and I get high a lot. Apart from the buzz of getting high, I get an undeniable satisfaction from harming myself and shortening my career. After decades of merely dabbling in masochism, I’m making it my mission. Then, in the fall of 1997, I get a phone call. It’s a man with a gruff voice. It’s my duty, he says, to inform you that you’ve failed the standard ATP [Association of Tennis Professionals] drug test. The urine sample you submitted has been found to contain trace amounts of crystal methylene. If you knowingly ingested the drug, you’ll be disciplined, of course. Three months’ suspension.

I write a letter to the ATP. I say Slim, whom I’ve since fired, often spikes his sodas with meth – which is true. I say that I drank accidentally from one of Slim’s spiked sodas. I don’t know what else to do but lie. I’ve never been so disgusted with myself. I tell [my coach] I’m done with drugs, I’ll never touch them again.

He’s true to his word. But his marriage to Shields remained troubled.

I’m sitting in our bathroom in Los Angeles, watching Brooke get ready to go out. Brooke accuses me of refusing to participate in her world. She says I’m not open to new experiences, new people. I could be rubbing elbows every night with geniuses – writers, artists, actors, musicians. But all I want to do is stay home, watch TV, and maybe, just maybe, have my friends over for dinner. I can’t lie. That does sound like a perfect night.

They divorce in 1999. That same year, Agassi connects with a fellow tennis champ who’d resisted his advances in the past – Steffi Graf.

[At the 2000 French Open, I lose in the second round.] Later I tell Stefanie that I don’t understand why I sometimes come apart – still. She gives me insights from her experience. Stop thinking, she says. Feeling is the thing. Feeling. It’s nothing I haven’t heard before. It sounds like a sweeter, softer version of my father. But when Stefanie says it, the words go deeper. Other times, Stefanie knows there is nothing to be said. She touches my cheek and tilts her hand and I see that she gets it – that she’s been there – and that’s enough.

Agassi and Graf begin dating, and in 2001 they announce she is pregnant.

It’s what we both wanted, and she’s delighted, but frightened too. So many changes. We go out dinner, to Matsuhisa. We sit holding hands, telling each other it’s going to be fantastic. I don’t realize until later that this is the same restaurant where it all unraveled with Brooke. Just like tennis. The same court on which you suffer your bloodiest defeat can become the scene of your sweetest triumph. After we’re done eating and crying and celebrating, I say: I guess we should get married. Her eyes widen. I guess so.

Agassi retires in 2006, finally giving up the game he both loved and hated. Then one day he and Graf – who have no tennis court in their Las Vegas home – drive to the local court for a pickup game.

I hit a screaming backhand – into the net. First backhand crosscourt I’ve missed in twenty years. For a moment it bothers me. I tell Stefanie it bothers me. I feel myself getting irritated. Then I laugh, and Stefanie laughs, and we begin again. Soon we’re having so much fun that when the rain comes, we don’t notice.
 
#25 ·
"Andre Agassi in his 15th got all speed from his dad"
automatic translation dutch-to-english by means of google tool

The autobiography 'Open' of Andre Agassi continues to stir concern. Besides the use of "crystal meth" has eight times grand slam winner now giving even "speed" to have swallowed, received from his dad. According to publications of the book, which appears on November 9, shows that the American on his five tenths already the stuff Sat According to Sports Illustrated went to a tournament in Michigan, where "The Las Vegas Kid" grabbed the doubles title.


Speed
Agassi describes how his older brother Phillip warned him for the white pills from Dad. "One night I had" Phillie "pills promise to paps not to take. I answered that for me he gave every match all Exedrin. Because a lot of caffeine Sat he knew and showed me a different kind of pills. The turned to "speed" to go. Phillie As predicted, Daddy gave me a pill for a national tournament in Chicago. A small, white, round pill. I took them and felt a little more alert. "

Facts barred
Agassi used 'crystal meth' in 1997. He was caught doping, but in a letter to the ATP Agassi that he invented a wrong had been drinking cocktails. The ATP could only classify the case vertically. The World Anti Doping Agency (Wada) is not already set up with the new revelations. Because the limitation period of 8 years has elapsed since Agassi and his racket has long hung on the willow, the ATP and the ITF Agassi sporting nothing in the way. But Wada would like to see the tennis federations consider them the 39-year-old tennis hero can not prosecute for perjury. (dea)
02/11/09 22h39min

if i would be Andre i would not tell every one on his drugs-problems...:(:p
 
#28 ·
Way too much unfounded speculation in the media - kind of wild to me that even though it is a huge bombshell, the mdeia is so irrespondible. All these articles about possible investigations, penalties etc, including mass circulation of the WADA asking the ATP to take action. But almost no circulation of the not so salacious ITF response yesterday which anyone who knows anything about spotrs or drug testing could predict:

http://www.dnaindia.com/sport/report_difficult-to-take-action-against-agassi-itf_1306440
 
#29 ·
Game Recognizes Game: Pass the Asterisk to Andre Agassi

Posted 11/02/2009 at 3:44 PM by JFK



Image may or may not be everything, but it's the unbridled truth tennis legend Andre Agassi is hoping will forever set his once tortured soul free.

The eight-time Grand Slam champ and former No. 1 player in the world has co-authored a new autobiography titled Open in which he candidly details a past that includes everything from rampant drug use and fake toupees to a simmering "hatred" for his hard-driving father.

"If you're going to tell your story, you owe it to yourself to tell it honestly," says Agassi, who admits to using crystal meth for "about a year or so," beginning in 1997 and only escaping suspension by lying to tour officials by insisting a failed drug test was the result of "unwittingly" consuming the spiked drink of an assistant.

Of his father, Agassi, writes, "he was violent by nature," recalling how he once pointed a gun at another motorist and regularly implored him to hustle people on the courts, among them NFL legend Jim Brown, whom he beat in a match for $500 when he was just nine-years-old.

While Agassi, who retired in 2006, has termed his revelations and the motivation behind them as purely cathartic, not everyone seems inclined to share his self-absolving view.

"Shocking," said singles record titleholder Martina Navratilova. "Not as much shock that he did it as shock he lied about it and didn't own up to it. He's up there with Roger Clemens, as far as I'm concerned."

Added current No. 1 Roger Federer, "it was a shock when I heard the news. I am disappointed and I hope there are no more such cases. Our sport must stay clean." --Glenn Minnis
 
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