Tales of two tennis stars
January 5th, 2010 Mary K. - Central
Two of the all-time best tennis players have recently released autobiographies and the stories of their beginnings could not be more different. Serena Williams, author of On the Line and Andre Agassi, author of Open: An Autobiography both started tennis at a very young age, and were instructed by their fathers, using very different methods. That’s where the similarities end. Williams portrays her early tutoring as endless fun, with the entire family involved in learning and drilling on the public courts in a dangerous area of Compton, California. Agassi, on the other hand, describes his early instruction from his father as torturous and brutal. Perhaps because of her upbringing,
Williams seems to unreservedly love everything about tennis, while Agassi is very clear about hating it for most of his career and unsparing in his descriptions of the personal toll the life that he did not choose took on him.
Agassi is by far the more introspective and honest in his depiction of his past, while Williams is upbeat and uncritical. On the Line reveals very little new personal information (at least for diehard Serena fans). Richard Williams, or “Daddy” is not the controversial person depicted in the press, but instead a loving and skilled coach and father. Williams rarely talks about her emotions and does not seem interested in contemplating her past.
Andre Agassi is not afraid to reveal unflattering incidents in his life: among other things, his experimentation with drugs and his short and unhappy first marriage are covered in great detail. And while Serena speaks glowingly of the Bolletieri Tennis Academy, Agassi, who was a resident, has an entirely different view. In fact, Agassi could be considered by some standards to be an abused child, although he probably would not agree. He doesn’t always present himself as very likeable, and sometimes judges his own actions quite harshly. Tellingly, he does not want his own children to play tennis professionally.
Serena’s many fans will no doubt love her book; but anyone looking for a more indepth and truthful description of the pro tennis tour should read Agassi’s book. There are common themes in both of their stories: both fought back after dropping out of the tennis rankings, both met Nelson Mandella at different times, and both are funding schools, Williams in Africa and Agassi in Las Vegas.
Any list of recent tennis books must also include Strokes of Genius: Federer, Nadal and the Greatest Match Ever Played by L. Jon Wertheim. Although it is not autobiographical, Wertheim has a lot of information about both of the players, as well as about the preparation and skill involved in a major tennis match, this one the very impressive final at Wimbledon in 2008. Along with Agassi’s book, this is a must read for fans of professional tennis.
Entry Filed under: Memoir & Biography, Nonfiction
5 Comments Add your own
1. Gerard | January 5th, 2010 at 9:16 am
I read a concise review about Agassi’s book:
Champion tennis player Agassi had a really, really crappy father and hates tennis. So he started doing crystal meth and married a German.
2. Jon - Central Library | January 5th, 2010 at 11:42 am
I’m pretty interested in Agassi’s book. I read some reviews that complained because there was too much tennis in it, which struck me as quite funny. David Foster Wallace, in an essay collected in A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again (either “Derivative Sport in Tornado Alley” or, more likely, “Michael Joyce’s professional artistry as a paradigm of certain stuff about choice, freedom, discipline, joy, grotesquerie, and human completeness”) follows around the 100th-ranked player in the world and writes about him. Wallace finds it remarkable the way tennis dominates the poor guy’s life–especially considering there are 99 players better than him. It’s been a while since I read it, but I think that’s the gist of it.
3. Molly Warren | January 5th, 2010 at 12:20 pm
Gerard! Ha! I guess I would have added that he wore fake hair and divorced a supermodel, too, but that is not as concise.
4. Mary K. | January 6th, 2010 at 9:32 am
Interesting that some reviewers think there is too much tennis in the book, actually I thought there could have been more, not sure how you balance the desires of avid tennis fans like me who watched him play for years and want to know exactly what he was thinking since tennis is such a mental game and those who just want to know about his personal life, And Jon, to play professional tennis at that level, even if you are not in the top 100, it would have dominate someone’s life. I think Wallace played on the junior circuit for a while so he should have a good perspective.
5. Liz | January 29th, 2010 at 11:03 am
I just finished reading Andre Agassi’s autobiography Open and I have to say I was pretty impressed by it, and found it engrossing and hard to put down. First of all I would like to say that it is too bad that the news outlets and various celebrities have zeroed in on one small section of the book, which is his admission of using drugs during one brief period. Reprehensible yes, but I have to feel that admitting it to his friends and family had to have been a lot harder and more painful than telling the general public. And it shouldn’t subtract from a career and a life that despite what was really a horrific childhood, is really quite substantial. I am sorry that the game that I enjoyed so much watching him play was so painful and hated by him but he has certainly taken that and moved on.
I also read the book about the Nadal/Federer match and Wimbledon. It was interesting how much he got beyond what we saw on TV, though it was borderline in the “too much tennis” school of thought.
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