Why Did Andre Agassi Hate Tennis but Keep Playing?

David Senra says Andre Agassi hated tennis but kept playing because he was not suited for anything else, tennis was the only thing he was qualified for, and his father would have a fit if he did anything different.

On Christmas Eve he went to his trainer's house. The trainer could not see why a young player who was famous, winning a lot of tournaments, and making a ton of money was not at a party with friends. His life had never belonged to him. It had always belonged to someone else: first his father, then the man who ran the tennis academy in Florida, and always tennis. His body was not his own until he met his trainer, who made him stronger, the one thing fathers are supposed to do. With his trainer and his trainer's family he felt for the first time that he was where he belonged. He was looking for a father, and his trainer played protector. He spent his childhood in an isolation chamber and his teen years in a torture chamber. Tennis kept him on the road something like 10 or 11 months out of the year, the same venues and the same opponents, only the years and the scores different.

The trainer had known hundreds of athletes and had never known one who hated athletics, and the trainer had nothing to say. Andre Agassi did not understand the hatred himself. He could only describe how it was.