Autobiographies of professional tennis players

[Blocker]

My wife bought me an iTunes gift card. I decided to buy, through iBooks, Andre Agassi's autobiography, "Open", which I found an extremely good read. I loved how he was brutally honest, in particular, his grudge against Becker and his tanking match against Chang to avoid playing Becker.

I still have plenty of credit on my gift card, I was just wondering if anyone can suggest some other good autobiographies of professional tennis players? Does anyone know the name of Sampras' autobiography, I can't seem to find it on iBooks.

Thanks.

[joeri888]

I think there's no book out there as honest and interesting as the Agassi one. Certainly not the Sampras biography (it does not compare) and not the Roger Federer story (quest for perfection I think its called) which are reasonably entertaining at most, and only if you don't know what is already publicly available about them. The Nadal book I haven't read. I can imagine it being interesting if you are a big fan of his. I'm not, so it doesnt attract me.

[Blocker]

Originally Posted by joeri888

I think there's no book out there as honest and interesting as the Agassi one. Certainly not the Sampras biography (it does not compare) and not the Roger Federer story (quest for perfection I think its called) which are reasonably entertaining at most, and only if you don't know what is already publicly available about them. The Nadal book I haven't read. I can imagine it being interesting if you are a big fan of his. I'm not, so it doesnt attract me.

Thanks joeri. No not really a Nadal fan though I do enjoy watching him play. And yes apparently Agassi's is the most frank of all the autos.

But I still wouldn't mind reading the Sampras auto, would like to read what he has to say about Agassi and his coach etc.

[Roddick85]

I read the Agassi/Sampras/Nadal biography. Agassi is by far the most honest and interesting of the bunch. The Nadal one, I have mixed feeling about, for starters his career isn't over yet (at least officially), and I feel the book is lacking in content. Still some of the parts were interesting, but it doesn't compare to Agassi's. A good read for big Nadal fans.

Sampras bio is the most boring of the bunch I found. There's way too many pages that are just wasted on tournament statistics and scores. Not much content in there too. As much as I loved Sampras game back in the days, his book is as interesting as his on-court attitude/emotion.

If your looking to get only one of them, my vote would go to the Agassi bio.

[TennisLovaLova]

Nadal's book was really diappointing. Read it just after agassi's, so I can tell the gap.
Nadal's book is only a long resume of the 08 wimbledon final.
Nothing really crusty about his personnality or his emotions. Just the usual hate to lose, relationship with uncle tony, family divorce.
Really not a good read imo.

[El Diablo]

One tennis biography is plenty! "Anna Karenina" is a terrific novel, or if you prefer non-fiction I'm told Stephen Hawking's last book "The Grand Design" is very compelling.

[Bergboy123]

The one by Blake is pretty good!

[kishnabe]

Agassi book is my favourite....can read it 2-3 times and not get bored. Very smooth.

The Blake and McEnroe ones are exceptionally good as well.

The Nadal, Becker, Nastase, Murray ones aren't that great.

[Ms Nadal]

I have Agassi and Rafa books. Both good reads but as said Agassi's is more honesty. For me, reading the Rafa book was kinda sad because he talks about his insecurities too much

[Mustard]

Roscoe Tanner's is pretty good.

[Gizo]

I'm don't like autobiographies that are written during a player's career. I wish that players would wait until after they have retired before working on them, as that way we get the full picture.

Here in the UK, many footballers release autobiographies when they haven't even reached their mid-20s yet and have barely anything interesting to talk about.

Obviously I understand why players like Nadal and Murray want to release autobiographies so early on in their lives and careers, to cash in, and they can't be blamed for that. I imagine that they will release second autobiographies after they have retired, but I doubt either of their careers and lives are interesting enough to merit 2 separate books.

Similarly Borg's autobiography, My Life and Game was a very enjoyable read. However it was released at the end of September 1980, and ignores his 1981 season and his various troubles from that year and beyond. Thus his book is simply incomplete.

Agassi's and McEnroe's autobiographies were both brilliant, and I've re-read them both a few times. I liked a Champions Mind by Sampras well.

I next plan on reading Becker's and Seles's autobiographies, in the case of Seles her second book 'Getting a Grip'.

[veroniquem]

Gizo, I agree and for best perspective it's even better if they wait a while after the end of their pro career. They have to feel free to draw a balance sheet and touch on sensitive issues.

[Gizo]

Originally Posted by veroniquem

Gizo, I agree and for best perspective it's even better if they wait a while after the end of their pro career. They have to feel free to draw a balance sheet and touch on sensitive issues.

Yes I completely agree. For instance if Agassi had written his autobiography in 2001, would he have been as open and honest and written exactly what he thought of guys like Sampras, discussed all those stories about Gilbert and most notably talked about the whole crystal meth saga. God no because no player is going to be so brutally honest in a book when they are still on the tour.

I hope Nadal does release a second book after he has retired, because as well as giving the full picture of his career, he will feel more freedom to openly discuss his thoughts towards his rivals Federer and Djokovic, his feelings towards Uncle Toni and their coaching relationship etc. I felt like tennis fans missed out with one of the biggest superstars the sport has ever seen, Borg, not releasing a post-retirement autobiography.

I cannot wait for Connors's autobiography to come out next Summer.

[Paul Murphy]

Well written books on players in the modern era are rare unfortunately.
One of the Nadal books I have was written by a clown who clearly knew little about tennis and kept writing that during matches Nadal was "all action".
What rubbish.
The Agassi book is actually a fine piece of writing, the best by a very large margin.

[Migelowsky]

the name is:
A Champion's Mind: Lessons from a Life in Tennis.

I started to read it and I couldn´t continue, it was just boring to me.

On the other hand, Mac´s "you cannot be serious" was very entertaining.
Other good books that I read are:

Mr. Nastase Illie Nastase
Getting a Grip: On my body, my mind, my self Monica Seles
Breaking Back James Blake
Open Andre Agassi
Coming of Age Andy Murray
Rafa John Carlin and Rafael Nadal.

Days of Grace by Arthut Ashe is interesting, but maybe a bit too serious , is not a fun read in tennis terms, I guess depends on the personality and Ashe was involved in so much civil and political movements that there is a lot more than tennis.

[DolgoSantoro]

Yeah, Andre's was by far the most entertaining.

Rafa was interesting too I guess. My favorite part was when he said something like "I've been telling everyone, Novak Djokovic is a dangerous player, he'll be causing me and Roger trouble very soon"

Considering I read this after the USO final last year I just laughed and said "You have NO idea"

[Rhino]

I've read a load of these books (Agassi, Becker, Sampras, Blake, Rafa, etc) and my favourite was "Break Point: The Secret Diary of a Pro Tennis Player" - by Vince Spadea.

[RAFA2005RG]

Originally Posted by DolgoSantoro

Yeah, Andre's was by far the most entertaining.

Rafa was interesting too I guess. My favorite part was when he said something like "I've been telling everyone, Novak Djokovic is a dangerous player, he'll be causing me and Roger trouble very soon"

Considering I read this after the USO final last year I just laughed and said "You have NO idea"

Well, Djokovic only caused 10 months of trouble (2011 Indian Wells - 2012 Australian Open). Nadal has won their last 3 meetings, and none of those 3 matches went to a deciding set.

[galain]

Agassi's book was very entertaining. Pat McEnroe also put out an interesting book and I enjoy big brother John's auto as well.

The books from the 80' and 70's about the tour are better - Courts of Babylon for example.

[RAFA2005RG]

I read Agassi's autobiography "Open", and I found it superb. And I had already read a very detailed biography "The Agassi and the Ecstasy". The fact that I learned A LOT of new things in every chapter of "Open" is impressive, considering how extensive "The Agassi and the Ecstasy" was. It shows how honest Agassi was. Whereas I saw Arnold Schwarzenegger on 60 Minutes and he admitted that he had many affairs and that he didn't include them in his book. That was disappointing to hear. I definitely won't read Arnold's book, now that I know its not completely honest.