In between marking assignments and catching up with family over the holidays, I stumbled upon Andre Agassi's autobiography, Open (actually, I found it in my partner's pile of opened presents and borrowed it).
I don't usually go for sporting biographies.
They seem quite superficial and commercial and I've never enjoyed hearing blow-by-blow descriptions of sporting events. Agassi's book, however, is different.
It reads like a fiction book and had me hooked from page one.
Among the candid revelations, Agassi explains his negative experience with Canon's catch phrase, "Image is everything".
This seemed an appropriate story to mention at a time when New Zealand sport journalists go gah gah over Maria Sharapova at the ASB Classic.
In his book, Agassi admits that he was a bit of a rebel who wore garish clothing and crazy hairstyles/hair pieces.
Canon, as one of his corporate sponsors, exploited this perception of him, and by asking him to say "image is everything" while stepping out of a white Lamborghini in a white suit and black sunglasses, the phrase became synonymous with his persona.
The book, however, reveals a boy-child who was rebelling and representing himself outrageously as a way of hiding from the tennis world he hated.
Although Agassi was devastated with the impact the catch phrase had on his life, Canon was clever to coin it because in tennis, and in women's tennis especially, image is everything. Of all the difficult and unusual names to try to remember at the ASB Classic, such as Alberta Brianti, Renata Voracova, Elena Vesnina, Dinara Safina, Yanina Wickmayer, Kimiko Date-Krumm, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Kateryna Bondarenko, Jill Craybas and Marina Erakovic, Maria Sharapova's name is the most memorable and most iconic. Like her Russian predecessor Anna Kournikova, Sharapova is aesthetically pleasing to the male eye, and there are many women who want to look like her. Unlike Kournikova, however, Sharapova also has the ability to win grand slams - three, in fact: Wimbledon (2004), US Open (2006) and Australian Open (2008). Three grand slam wins is a major athletic achievement, but let's be honest. It is Sharapova's image causing sell-out crowds at the ASB Classic. Her image causes the predominantly male media scrum to turn into a giggly teenage huddle asking ridiculous questions like "What language do you dream in?" Sharapova's huge diamond ring, her cute fist after every point she wins, and her, dare I say it, provocative grunting during play are often mentioned in articles.
What about her athleticism and strategic play? What about her competitiveness and killer instinct? What about her ability to out-think and out-play her opponent? Agassi found the association with the "Image is everything" slogan excruciating, as the media/public started to think this slogan represented his inner character.
None of us will know what makes tennis stars tick.
Heck, everyone was shocked to hear Tiger Woods got up to mischief despite the clean-cut and perfect image he presented via golf.
Professional athletes these days know that their image is their brand, but it isn't necessarily their true self.
We will never know what Sharapova's inner character is like, and no amount of silly questioning at media conferences will reveal that to us.
She is too sharp for that.
As an athlete who is used to the media frenzy she causes, she will remain very guarded and safe with her responses.
And so she should.
She is an athlete who is trying to make a comeback and who knows how to make a career for herself in the male-dominated world of professional sport.
Sharapova, unlike Agassi, is an athlete who knows image may not be everything, but it sure does help to keep your career going, to get you invitations to tournaments, and to keep your brand valuable.
