Last week I decided it’s time to do a Facing Andre Agassi book. Frankly, I can’t believe I waited so long because he may be the most fascinating, colorful, natural born story machine in tennis history.
We all read his autobiography Open – If you haven’t you made a big mistake because it’s probably the best tennis book ever published – but Open is totally from Agassi’s point of view. There’s no other outside perspectives of his historic career.
Over the years I heard a few amazing Agassi stories from juniors and pro and off court and they are worthy of their own book and so that’s the main motive for doing Facing Andre Agassi. A writer or artist loves a unique, electric subject to apply his skills to and there really is no other more interesting figure in tennis than Andre Agassi, though of course there have been so many challengers – Federer, Djokovic, Nadal, McEnroe, Borg, Connors, Laver, Rios, Safin, Becker, Vitas, Vilas, Seles, Budge, Tilden, Carlos, etc.
What I’m discovering in the process of creating Facing Andre Agassi is that he is Mike Tyson, Novak Djokovic, Muhammad Ali, Oscar De La Hoya, Jimmy Connors, Jennifer Capriati, Babe Ruth, Tiger Woods all in one… or a blend of each.
Here’s a brief sneak peak so far of Facing Andre Agassi…
(Artwork by Miki DeGoodaboom)
Luke Jensen: We were in shark infested waters on a rented boat in Australia before Australian Open. Andre got an offer to play an exhibition somewhere in Asia for five or six figures and he declined the offer. I said, Andre, that’s only two hours, you’ll get paid a fortune for a workout session. He said he didn’t want to do it. Then he told me, he would pay me $50,000 to jump in the water and swim around the boat, but really swim around the boat, not with my hands on the sides of the boat. I said no way, these are Great White shark infested waters. And then Andre said, and I will never forget it, “See, it’s not about the money.”
That was a lot fun to hang out with Andre back then. He’d pay for everything and he’d always bring some kind of celebrity along.
Mark Harrison: I never played Andre in juniors. I played Jim Courier three times and won all three. At one of the junior tournaments in Florida, I was watching Andre play. I think it was 14s. He was on the baseline ready to return serve. And suddenly a ball from another court, hit him in the head. For a second Andre, didn’t know what happened and then he realized it was a mishit ball from the next court. And as soon as he realized what happened, he refocused and locked in as if nothing happened.
Peter Haggar: I remember playing Andre in a junior tournament at Sarasota Bath & Racquet. It was a very cold morning about 25 degrees. I remember Andre played the whole match with a hooded sweatshirt with the hood tied up so all you could see was his eyes. He won the match 60 60 in about 25 minutes!
You can purchase your copy of Facing Andre Agassi here for $10.99
Andre Agassi · ATP · Las Vegas · Nike · US Open · Wimbledon
Steve · June 18, 2025 at 6:51 am
The best description of his early game was “he’s Connors with top spin”.
Scoop Malinowski · June 18, 2025 at 7:20 am
Or he’s “a haircut with a forehand.” (Ivan Lendl)