The Inner Conflict of Andre Agassi Andre Agass, a professional tennis player and former World No. 1 was born in Las Vegas, NV. He is married to Steffi Graf, likewise a former No. 1 German tennis player, with whom he has two kids, Jaden and Jaz. His professional career started in Florida, where he was involuntarily sent by his father, to Nick Bollettieri’s Tennis Academy in Florida. Due to his fathers’ limited budget he arranged only three months’ worth of tennis lessons. However, after the coach observed Agassi play, for approximately thirty minutes, he insisted that his father take his check back and Agassi stay for free. The coach was astonished by Agassi’s natural talent; it was something he has never seen before. In …show more content…
The game of Tennis places extreme physical demands on its’ players. In Agassis’ case, the matter gets only worse due to his medical condition spondylolisthesis. Spondylolisthesis is a condition in which a vertebra slips out of its normal position onto the bone below it. With this deformity even minor movements cause pain and discomfort. “Sometimes, however, the moment arrives in the middle of a match…My body has been shouting it doesn’t want to play anymore… My body doesn’t want to retire—my body has already retired” (Agassi, 4). Here the reader can recognize that tennis has placed a substantial physical strain on his health. He gets sharp pains during …show more content…
He contemplates a possibility of retiring after an upcoming match. “Please let this be over. I don’t want this to be over” (Agassi, 9) In this example, Agassi wants this journey of his life to be over so that he can finally settle into one home, and stop traveling. But he thinks of all the matches he won, and is certain how good of a player he is, perhaps he should keep playing. Again, the inner conflict can be observed as he is not sure what to do with the sport he dearly dislikes, but is exceptionally brilliant