Open
I play and keep playing because I choose to play. Even if it’s not your ideal life, you can always choose it. No matter what your life is, choosing it changes everything.
Andre Agassi • Open
IF I MUST PLAY TENNIS, the loneliest sport, then I’m sure as hell going to surround myself with as many people as I can off the court. And each person will have his specific role. Perry will help with my disordered thoughts. J.P. will help with my troubled soul. Nick will help with the basics of my game. Philly will help with details, arrangements,
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Of course tomorrow there will be severe physical consequences, but I can’t dwell on tomorrow any more than I can dwell on yesterday.
Andre Agassi • Open
Moments before we take the court I wonder why a player as polished and accomplished as Mac needs a hiatus. Then he shows me. He demonstrates the virtue of rest. He beats me soundly, 6–3, 6–3.
Andre Agassi • Open
Rest matters even and especially at high levels of performance
Then he determines my physical limit, and pushes me right up to it.
Andre Agassi • Open
I need to start the fifth with fury. I also need to acknowledge that I can’t win every point. I can’t run after everything, can’t lunge for each dink and drop. I can’t go full-speed against a kid who’s still teething. He wants to be out here all night, but I have forty-five minutes of energy left, forty-five minutes of a functioning body. Or maybe
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Tennis players travel as much as any athletes, but the stress and rigors of the game keep us from seeing.
Andre Agassi • Open
To make matters worse, journalists write down exactly what I say, while I’m saying it, word for word, as if this represented the literal truth. I want to tell them, Hold it, don’t write that down, I’m only thinking out loud here. You’re asking about the subject I understand least—me. Let me edit myself, contradict myself. But there isn’t time. They
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This theme -- what Agassi says to reporters -- crops up a bunch in the book. I know it's folksy, but it seems like sticking to real answers, even "I don't know," would have been a huge time-saver. "Oh, what a tangled web we weave..."
Gil’s philosophy in all things is to seek the pain, woo the pain, recognize that pain is life. If you’re heartbroken, Gil says, don’t hide from it. Wallow in it. We hurt, he says, so let’s hurt.
Andre Agassi • Open
He’s shaken by the French Open, as am I. One morning, before the sun comes up, he passes along some words his mother always tells him. Qué lindo es soñar despierto, he says. How lovely it is to dream while you are awake. Dream while you’re awake, Andre. Anybody can dream while they’re asleep, but you need to dream all the time, and say your dreams
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