Andre Agassi found his true loves as his tennis career was winding down

This is part 4 of my series on Andre Agassi's Open: An Autobiography, a must-read for tennis fans. Part 1 covered his epic 5-setter at the 2006 U.S. Open against Marcos Baghdatis, his upbringing by a violent father, an incident in Washington D.C.'s Rock Creek Park, and his rise in the junior ranks. Part 2 covered his rise to sports greatness and falling in love with celebrity Brooke Shields. Part 3 covered his tennis and personal collapse.

When Andre Agassi’s ill-fated marriage to Brooke Shields ended, his coach Brad Gilbert jumped. He knew it was Andre’s chance, as a bachelor with no other distractions, to finally focus on tennis and to also try to win over the heart of who he could tell was his player’s true love, superstar Steffi Graf.

Against his wishes, it was 1999 and Andre really didn’t feel like playing tennis. His shoulder ached and when he realized five minutes before his first-round match at the French Open that he’d forgotten to pack his underwear, he thought it was finally time to retire. But then he decided to go commando. It worked, he won the match, and he started going underwear-less for all his matches. The comeback was on and Agassi absolutely smashed his opponents all the way until the finals. At a rain delay after badly losing the first match to his friend Andrei Medvedev, Gilbert lost it in the locker room. He berated his star pupil for feeling down on himself and hopeless in the eye of defeat, instructing him to start seeing the ball and hitting the ball … if Medvedev hit a forehand, hit a forehand back better and if he hit a backhand, hit a backhand back better. The tide turned and the tournament that was his to win in 1990, 1991, and 1995 was finally ready to go his way. Agassi became one of the few men to win all four Grand Slams and afterwards partied with John McEnroe at a restaurant in downtown Paris and received a congratulation call from Bjorn Borg while it raged.

After many hit-and-miss attempts to connect, since, after all, Graf did have a long-time boyfriend, Agassi and Steffi (she preferred Stefanie) planned to get together in L.A. after a tournament. As Andre was leaving the final (another loss to Pete Sampras) dressed to the nines for the date, Brooke Shields appeared, discovered he was going on a date with the person whose photo was taped to their refrigerator, told Andre he looked nice, kissed him on the cheek, and the two would never talk again.

Andre’s first two dates with Steffi were a dinner and a stroll on the beach in San Diego and they didn’t talk much tennis, mainly Andre said he hated it and Steffi gave a look of “don’t we all?” Eventually they realized they shared an opinion on the topic of favorite movie—Shadowlands, about the writer C.S. Lewis and the ability to commit and open one’s self to love. As Steffi decided to retire, Agassi won another Washington D.C. tournament and lingered near the number-one ranking, while she was headed to Germany to break up with her boyfriend and tell him about Andre.

The first match in which Steffi was in the stands to see Andre was the U.S. Open final. Announcer McEnroe lambasted tourney officials for not getting her better seats, but she chose to go semi-undercover. Agassi beat Todd Martin to take his fifth overall Slam. Their first “official” date was an Oscar de la Hoya boxing match in Vegas. Meanwhile. Agassi’s tennis was on a hot streak, going 27-1 over the past four Grand Slams after claiming his sixth at the 2000 Australian. The year proceeded to be rough as his mom and sister battled cancer, but they both improved enough that Andre was able to win his seventh Slam at the 2001 Australian.

Agassi continued his winning ways and became the oldest man to ever be ranked number one. By the time he and Steffi quickly had a boy and a girl, Andre began to not quite make it to the end of tournaments, with a lot of losses in semis and quarters along the way. He announced his retirement plans, whoch were to include one last Wimbledon and U.S. Open in 2006. In London, he was blasted out in the third round in 70 minutes by a young brute named Rafael Nadal. In the U.S., he pulled off a mighty second-round win but his body could take no more as he lost to Benjamin Becker in the third round. A guy named B. Becker!

Agassi ended this book—perhaps the finest one I’ve ever read about the world of tennis—with a look at his new passion: running his school in Las Vegas. That he came around to being such an advocate for education was miraculous, considering his own lackluster academic record. It’s a touching glimpse into the heart of a man who has shown inspirational personal growth alongside a tennis career that included eight Grand Slam championships, an Olympic gold, and being one of only five men in the Open Era (from 1968 to present) to win each of the four major tournaments.

5 out of 5 stars.