Yes he might have been the inspiration for Mel Gibson in Braveheart, but Andre Agassi had a tougher time than you might at first think.

Andre Agassi, widely considered one of the greatest tennis players of all time, admits in a new autobiography that he hates tennis, "with a dark and secret passion" — and always has.

Because he was born with spondylolisthesis, a spinal condition where one vertebra parts from the other, leaving less room for the nerves in the spinal column, the slightest wrong movement can leave Agassi awash in pain. So over the course of a career that keeps him in constant motion, he's had to find ways to cope — cortisone shots, altering his game and eventually retirement.

Agassi's book is called Open. In it, he reveals, among other things, that he used crystal meth — and that he wore a hairpiece in the 1990 French Open to hide a bald spot.

Read in an excerpt about a day during Agassi's final tournament, the 2006 U.S. Open — how he prepared, mentally and physically, for the emotional ambiguity of retiring from a career he both loves and hates.

Listen to this interview on NPR: Listen to the Story Fresh Air from WHYY