Want to learn the ideas in Open better than ever? Read the world’s #1 book summary of Open by Andre Agassi here.

Read a brief 1-Page Summary or watch video summaries curated by our expert team. Note: this book guide is not affiliated with or endorsed by the publisher or author, and we always encourage you to purchase and read the full book.

Video Summaries of Open

We’ve scoured the Internet for the very best videos on Open, from high-quality videos summaries to interviews or commentary by Andre Agassi.

1-Page Summary of Open

Overview

Andre Agassi was a tennis champion who grew up in Las Vegas. He hated playing tennis at first, and only started because his father wanted him to do it. However, he ended up being very good at it. He went on to win many awards for the sport and is now considered one of the best players ever. In this article, you’ll learn about his life story as well as some things that made him successful despite not liking what he did when he began doing it.

Andre Agassi’s life story will be explored, including how he got into tennis and his charity work.

Andre Agassi was a tennis player who had to hit hundreds of balls every day when he was 7 years old. He was also taunted for being all style and no substance, which made him feel insecure about himself. However, Brooke Shields helped him learn to embrace his insecurities.

Big Idea #1: Andre Agassi’s childhood was difficult and dominated by an overbearing father who forced him to practice tennis.

Andre Agassi has been playing tennis for a long time. He faced off against his father’s machine, which shot out tennis balls like a cannon. His father yelled at him to hit the ball harder and earlier.

Agassi’s father was a violent man who wanted his son to succeed in tennis. He abused Agassi and never let him give up tennis.

Andre Agassi still remembers the first time he saw his father get violent. Andre’s father was driving and got into an argument with another driver, who honked at him. His dad went crazy and beat up that guy in the middle of the street. He left him unconscious there, so he could die or be run over by a car.

The pressure on Andre Agassi was immense. His father’s demands and expectations were the result of his own aspirations for his son to become a world-class tennis player. As a child, Agassi’s father had watched British and American soldiers playing tennis in Tehran, Iran. In fact, he’d even acted as a ball boy for them.

Agassi’s father took up boxing. He wanted his son to be a great tennis player, but there weren’t any kids around with whom Agassi could play tennis. His father didn’t win an Olympic medal, but he was determined that his son would bring home the gold.

Big Idea #2: Agassi’s professional career began after a rebellious stint at an oppressive tennis academy.

Agassi was nine years old when he beat Jim Brown, a famous football player. He also beat his father at tennis in a set of three straight games. However, that wasn’t as impressive as beating his father again the next day and winning five games to two against him.

It wasn’t new for Agassi to play against older players. He had already been playing in junior tournaments, where he was younger than most of the other kids, for a year before beating his father.

Agassi was under a lot of pressure to succeed. He didn’t get an education, and he was enrolled in the Nick Bollettieri Tennis School at 14 years old. The school was like a barracks where children had to practice tennis all day long and were cut off from the outside world.

The food was bad, and the students often went unsupervised. As a result, fights were common. Once, two students fought after one student used a racial slur against the other student. The offended student broke his opponent’s jaw in return for the insult. But no one was disciplined for this incident or others like it.

Although Agassi wanted to escape his father’s control, he couldn’t because Bollettieri was strict and unforgiving. He let Agassi do what he wanted as long as it didn’t interfere with his tennis practice.

Andre Agassi was a gifted tennis player, but his father wouldn’t let him play professionally until he turned 15. He would have played in tournaments before that, but his dad didn’t allow it.

Open Book Summary, by Andre Agassi