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IGETMONEY
06 Nov 09 12:57
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Date Joined: 22 Apr 08
| Topic/replies: 672 | Blogger: IGETMONEY's blog
Agassi hints he tanked games. "Losing on purpose isn't easy," he writes. "You have to lose in such a way that the crowd can't tell, and in a way that you can't tell. Your mind is tanking, but your body is fighting on. ... You don't do those tiny things you need to do. You don't run the extra few feet, you don't lunge. You're slow to come out of stops. You hesitate to bend or dig." Of losing in the semifinals of the 1996 Australian Open against Michael Chang -- a match Agassi suggests he tanked -- he writes, "I'm glad I lost."

Sportswriters who accused him of tanking often were wrong. "They never get it right," he writes in the diary-style format. "When I tank, they say I'm not good enough; when I'm not good enough, they say I tank."

He says his father calculated that when Agassi was 7, he made him hit 1 million balls in a single year.

He says his father gave him speed before the junior nationals in Chicago. Agassi writes he purposely made the match closer than it had to be, just so his father wouldn't make him take it again.

He did crystal meth partly out of self-loathing. "Apart from the buzz of getting high," he writes, "I get an undeniable satisfaction from harming myself and shortening my career. After decades of merely dabbling in masochism, I'm making it my mission. ... I hate tennis more than ever, but I hate myself more."

He was a bit of a pyromaniac. He liked to light things on fire. Once, on the balcony of a Munich hotel, he lit paper, clothes and shoes on fire, his way of coping with "extreme stress."

He had plenty of stress. He was so angry after then-girlfriend Brooke Shields licked actor Matt LeBlanc's hand at a live taping of "Friends," he stormed out, drove home and smashed all his trophies, including ones he won at the Davis Cup, U.S. Open and Wimbledon.

He was never sure he wanted to marry Shields. But he could relate to the actress. "She knows what it's like to grow up with a brash, ambitious, abrasive stage parent," he writes.

He claims that while Shields was getting in shape for the wedding, she taped a photo on her refrigerator of the "perfect woman" -- Steffi Graf (now his wife).

He says he got married with lifts in his shoes at Shields' request.

He says Shields got regular threats from stalkers, and he would put his longtime trainer, Gil Reyes, on a plane to stalk them back. "He ... appears ... at the stalker's house or workplace ... holds up the letter and says very softly, 'I know who you are and where you live. ... If you ever bother Brooke and Andre again, you will see me again, and you don't want that,'" Agassi writes.

He describes rival Pete Sampras as one-dimensional, "robotic" and a bad tipper, recalling a time Sampras gave a Palm Springs car valet one dollar. On the other hand, Agassi is grateful to have had Sampras' greatness to measure himself against. "Losing to Pete has caused me enormous pain," he writes, "but in the long run it's also made me more resilient. If I'd beaten Pete more often ... I'd have a better record ... but I'd be less."

He saves no love for Jimmy Connors, whom he calls a "rude, condescending, egomaniac**." Of Connors' coaching Andy Roddick for a time, he writes, "Poor Andy."

He was incensed that Chang would point to the sky every time he won a match. "He thanks God -- credits God -- for the win, which offends me. That God should take sides in a tennis match, that God should side against me ... feels ludicrous and insulting."

He says Todd Martin was, "like me, an underachiever."

He insists that his sister, Rita, ran off with 32-years-older tennis legend Pancho Gonzales because their father was too contentious and controlling.

He notes that the irony of a man who never finished high school running one of the finest prep schools in Nevada is not lost on him. To say nothing of his school having a dress code.

And, perhaps the most shocking revelation of all: Beginning in 1999, he says, he never played wearing underwear again.

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Replies: 26
By:
Hayden
When: 06 Nov 09 12:59
jeez if you believe that lot you may as well start buying the news of the world.
By:
Agassi 77
When: 06 Nov 09 13:00
he tanked Rome matches for the entire 90's
By:
McChicken_Sandwich
When: 06 Nov 09 13:02
Erm.

'f*cked Kournikova when she was 14.'

I think you made that up lol
By:
noland2_
When: 06 Nov 09 13:03
Me too - I was looking for that!
By:
__JC_GT__
When: 06 Nov 09 13:07
I can't see anything about Kournikova? :|
By:
Justiki
When: 06 Nov 09 13:08
Wasted my time trying to find a bit on Kournikova :(
By:
dionio
When: 06 Nov 09 13:11
lol all searching for kournikova
By:
curious8
When: 06 Nov 09 13:16
Dunno why now I very hate Agassi already...
By:
Justiki
When: 06 Nov 09 13:17
Where in the UK can I get this book, please?
By:
Five By Five
When: 06 Nov 09 13:18
Amazon from the 9th.
By:
Justiki
When: 06 Nov 09 13:18
Sorry, too lazy, Amazon's got it at 11 quid probably others as well
By:
Justiki
When: 06 Nov 09 13:19
Thanks, Five By Five, you gonna get it for yourself? ;)
By:
brokendownsadlonelyhack
When: 06 Nov 09 13:19
....and Kournikova? Was it doggy style?
By:
Five By Five
When: 06 Nov 09 13:20
No. :) Cant stand the guy, i dont want to read more about him.
By:
DStyle
When: 06 Nov 09 13:24
it's odd isn't it 5*5. he's admitting to having been a prize tool and he's now cashing in on this admission.

you wonder whether he now thinks he isn't one.
By:
Jaap
When: 06 Nov 09 13:25
Agassi was always a bit of a fake nice guy. He used to give ballboys a rough ride and humiliate opponents(remember one time when he took the p!ss out of Kucera at the french open).
By:
vila's sister
When: 06 Nov 09 13:31
Makes me wonder now what the real reason was for his loss against Nieminen at RG. Too much or to little crystal meth ? I lost quite a sum on that match. Think I'll see if I can download a scanned copy of his book somewhere to get at least some satisfaction ;-)
By:
Five By Five
When: 06 Nov 09 13:33
give it a few weeks will be in charity shops for a couple of quid. Never ceases to amaze me why 'stars' who have done wrong bring out a book and make more money out of the public.
By:
IGETMONEY
When: 06 Nov 09 13:33
The Kournikova part is just my fantasy.
By:
good value losers
When: 06 Nov 09 13:42
i hope agassi's lawyers don't get hold of this fred! :0


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By:
thetitan
When: 06 Nov 09 15:48
GVL the killjoy, again :^0
By:
IGETMONEY
When: 06 Nov 09 16:06
I don't think I can hold my laugh in front of a judge when he quotes me :^0
By:
Don No1
When: 06 Nov 09 16:10
I'm hoping these are the thoughts of the troubled youthful Agassi and not the one the one he's turned out to be.
By:
NoMortaL
When: 06 Nov 09 17:24
Agassi is half Iranian right? I'm surprised his father didn't push him towards "soccer" instead of making "him hit 1 million balls in s single year".
By:
edy
When: 06 Nov 09 18:07
why was he glad to lose to tank to Michael Chang in a GS semi that would've set him up against either Becker, whom he had won 9 of the last 10 against at that time, or woodforde who had only ever won one set against Agassi in 3 tries?

Crazy little man.
By:
edy
When: 06 Nov 09 18:08
scratch either "to lose" or "to tank" from that sentence :|
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