Photo Gallery Andre Agassi Looks Back
Agassi discusses having been shipped off to a tennis academy in Florida at 13 to perfect a sport he never liked. In a SPIEGEL interview, he says: "The truth is that I did not know who I was. I was afraid of losing, of the blame and the jokes, of the public and of my father. I really hated tennis."
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The book is full of surprising revelations. One is that he used crystal meth in 1997...
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...another is that his signature wild hair was actually a wig.
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During his career, Agassi had troubled relations with his competitors. For years, his rivalry with Pete Sampras kept tennis fans on the edge of their seats. In his SPIEGEL interview, Agassi says about Sampras: "I believe that, without Pete, I would have won more but learned less."
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After a brief marriage with Brooke Shields, Agassi married women's tennis legend Steffi Graf in October 2001. The two now have two children: Jaden Gil, a son born in 2001, and Jaz Elle, a daughter born in 2003.
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After retiring from professional tennis, Agassi started a charitable foundation, which has provided funding for the Andre Agassi Preparatory Academy for at-risk children, the Agassi Center for Children and the Andre Agassi Cottage for Medically Fragile Children.
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Asked how it felt to be retired at 39, Agassi told SPIEGEL: "Free. I was liberated. I never missed tennis. I never liked the competition. I never liked the presure put on me. I never liked that I couldn't be perfect at it. It felt like I had been created to never be satisfied." Here, Graf, Agassi and their children at a professional basketball game in Miami.
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