The History Book Club discussion

This is a thread to discuss the history of Tennis.

I love to play tennis. Can anyone recommend a great book revolving around this sport?

This sounds interesting:

Caryl Phillips

Library Journal:
Award-winning British novelist and playwright Phillips (The Nature of Blood, LJ 1/97) has compiled a delightful and revelatory sampler of 65 pieces divided into nine sections that cumulatively underscore the inherent tension generated by tennis's staid traditions, eccentric personalities, and innovations. Some of the most eloquent and articulate voices in the literary tennis canon are represented: there are excerpts from John McPhee's classic Levels of the Game and John Feinstein's Hard Courts, Arthur Ashe's beautiful commentaries in "The Burden of Race" and "The Davis Cup," and James Thurber's review of a Lenglen-Wills match. Phillips strikes an oddly comfortable balance between historical and contemporary voices, sometimes yielding interesting surprises, as in Rich Koster's 1976 profile of "bad boy" Jimmy Connors, who speaks of getting a rush from the crowd's hostility but who in the twilight of his career came to embrace and seek out audience support and adoration. A fun read for all tennis fans. Barry X. Miller, Austin P.L., TX
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

This looks good:

Marshall Jon Fisher

New Yorker:
This thoroughly researched account uses the deciding 1937 Davis Cup match between Germany’s Gottfried von Cramm and the U.S.’s Don Budge to explore both the pre-topspin era of tennis and prewar international tension. The debt to John McPhee’s justly sanctified “Levels of the Game” is acknowledged and largely paid, but Fisher’s dutiful focus on the historical details of the era leads to long rehashes of familiar Nazi outrages. Von Cramm emerges as an elegant resister to the Reich, a persecuted homosexual who is clearly more interesting to the author than the bland, prodigiously talented Budge. But the figure at the edge who overshadows the narrative, as he did the tennis world until the Open system began, in 1968, is Bill Tilden, Cramm’s coach, a vain, theatrical box-office star who essentially invented the mid-century game.
Copyright ©2008

When I think of tennis I think of Arthur Ashe

by Arthur Ashe
"Touching and courageous...All of it--the man, the life, the book--is rare and beautiful."
COSMOPOLITAN DAYS OF GRACE is an inspiring memoir of a remarkable man who was the true embodiment of courage, elegance, and the spirit to fight: Arthur Ashe--tennis champion, social activist, and person with AIDS. Frank, revealing, touching--DAYS OF GRACE is the story of a man felled to soon. It remains as his legacy to us all....

by Arthur Ashe
Arthur Ashe was not only a great tennis champion but a great teacher and analyst of the game he loved. In this book - delayed in its publication while Arthur completed his memoir Days of Grace - he shares the incomparable store of brilliance, experience, strategy, technique, and all-around tennis wisdom he acquired in the course of his remarkable life: as player in training, as winner of three Grand Slam titles, as two-time number-one-ranking player, as Davis Cup captain, as superb and instinctive teaching pro, as television commentator, as writer for Tennis magazine. Arthur speaks to players at all levels. In addressing the questions he was most often asked, he details an approach to the game built on fundamentals - strokes, grips, serves, returns of serve - and match-tested strategies: when to change your game plan, playing percentage tennis, covering the court. In addition, he stresses the aspect of tennis for which he was particularly known: the mental game. He helps you to understand both your own game and your opponent's, explaining body language and the element of surprise, and breaking a match down to its key points. His comments on players past and present - from Pancho Gonzalez and Rod Laver to Andre Agassi, Steffi Graf, and Pete Sampras - illuminate essential areas of tennis.

This looks interesting:
by Johnette Howard
In March 1973 two women met on a tennis court in Akron, Ohio. Over the course of the next sixteen years, together they would change the world. In their long careers Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert played each other eighty times, sixty of those in finals. For twelve consecutive years, from 1975 to 1986, one or other finished the season ranked No. 1 in the world. Each set out to be the finest player women's tennis had ever seen; each goaded the other to greatness. Their contrasting styles - Martina, the epitome of serve-and-volley tennis, bravely charging to the net against cool and controlled Chris, the world's greatest baseline player - captivated millions across the globe. Tennis was a chauvinistic game when they arrived. But their brilliance demanded, and received, long-overdue respect for female sporting achievement. Their ability to forge a close friendship amidst their fierce competition still provokes wonder and admiration from fans. There has never been a sporting rivalry to match the intensity, longevity, public impact and emotional resonance of the years-long duel between these two great athletes. For nearly two decades we were transfixed by the struggle between the ice-maiden Chris - blonde, all-American, a nation's sweetheart - and the supreme athlete Martina, a Czech defector, the first outspoken openly gay athlete in female sport, and a woman who wore her heart on her sleeve at all times. Their lockstep careers played out against the backdrop of seismic change in sport and society: the women's movement; the gay rights' movement; the fall of the Iron Curtain; and the rise of women's tennis from backwater to big time (with a huge nod of gratitude to Billie Jean King). Thirty years on from the first meeting, both have become legends. Based on interviews with both Martina and Chris and those who knew them best, Johnette Howard gives us the story of these two remarkable women. Brilliantly researched, beautifully written, Unrivalled will be read by those who love sport for years to come.

Nice, I remember the two dueling it out; good matches.

Did you know? . . . TODAY IN 1957 - Althea Gibson is the first African American woman player to win a Wimbledon title in women's tennis singles.
A couple of books about this trailblazing athlete:

by Frances Clayton Gray
From Booklist
Althea Gibson won both Wimbledon and the U.S. Open tennis titles in 1957 and 1958, achievements made all the more significant because, at that time, it was almost unknown for African Americans to compete in the sport. Gray, Gibson's longtime friend, relates a life filled with sporting excellence and personal struggles against racism. The compelling aspect of Gibson's battles as a black woman in a very white sport was the solitary nature of her crusade. Jackie Robinson had Branch Rickey, but none of Gibson's advocates possessed that level of personal clout or institutional leverage. Gray enumerates Gibson's journey through the sporting world, her money struggles, and her lack of endorsements. Gibson seldom took her frustrations public, internalizing them instead. In the years preceding her death in 2003 at 76, she was bitter and virtually penniless. Gray presents a balanced portrait of a life that had its storybook moments but was missing the happily-ever-after ending. Thought-provoking reading, especially for those who think the integration of sport was accomplished solely by Jackie Robinson.

by Bruce Schoenfeld
With the help of friends who recognized her extraordinary talent, Althea Gibson rose from a childhood of playing stickball on Harlem streets to claim victory at Wimbledon. It is widely recognized that her sacrifices along the way paved the road for the successes of Venus and Serena Williams. But Althea's was a victory hard fought and painfully won.

She had no idea the turn her life would take when she met Angela Buxton at the French Indoor Championships. Despite her athletic prowess, Althea was shunned by the other female players. Her failing was her skin color. Angela, the granddaughter of Russian Jews, was also shunned. Her failing was her religion. Finding themselves without doubles partners, the pair decided to join forces, and together they triumphed, going on to win the 1956 championship at Wimbledon. The two women would become lifelong friends, and Angela would prove to be among Althea's greatest supports during her darkest times.

Gibson died in 2003, but her life and her contributions to tennis and race relations in the United States are well preserved in this valuable book. Bruce Schoenfeld delivers not only the true story of Gibson's life but also an inspiring account of two underdogs who refused to let bigotry win -- both on and off the courts.

Awesome!

Love Game: A History of Tennis, from Victorian Pastime to Global Phenomenon

by Elizabeth Wilson (no photo)

Synopsis:

Tennis's gladiatorial beauty, its stylish duelling and fashionable court-wear make it a romantic's dream. Ever since young men and women first came together to play on vicarage lawns, this most Victorian of games has always had a peculiarly passionate undercurrent - love even makes it into the scoring system. And passion in other forms - the rivalry of Federer and Nadal, and John McEnroe's legendary angry outbursts.

Beyond the romance, tennis has always been a barometer of the times. French star Suzanne Lenglen was a celebrity trailblazer, Jimmy Connors channelled punk, and Henman Hill is unrecognisable from the days when the All England Club ostracised working-class Fred Perry - and the great English tennis champion who is now more famous as a leisure clothing brand than a sportsman.

Love Game is the must-have companion for tennis fans during Wimbledon 2014. It tells the story of tennis' journey from upper-middle-class hobby to global TV spectacle, taking in the innovators and trendsetters, the great players, heroes and iconoclasts, and the politics, class wars and culture clashes of what could rightfully be called the 'beautiful game'.

Martina

by Martina Navratilova (no photo)

Synopsis:

There's never been an athlete like her. Born and raised in Czechoslovakia, Martina Navratilova knew by the age of ten that she wanted to be a Wimbledon champion -- and a U.S. citizen. She would attain her goals and so much more -- but not before her incredible life unfolded in ways not even she could have dared imagine.
MARTINA is more than the thrilling story of an unparalleled career in the tough, sexy world of women's tennis. It is a startling tale of love (with famed novelist Rita Mae Brown), tragedy (her father "disappeared" when Martina was eight, and only later did she learn the true cause of his death), and personal as well as professional triumph. It includes fascinating, intimate portraits of the greats of women's tennis -- King, Evert, Casals, Austin -- plus revealing glimpses of her working relationship with basketball star Nancy Lieberman.

Emotion. Grit. Intensity. Integrity. Martina's shown them all from Flushing Meadows to Wimbledon, from Dallas to Paris to Sydney to Prague. Here they are again, in an autobiography only a champion could write.

"Fascinating and unexpectedly candid." --The San Francisco Chronicle

The Greatest Tennis Matches of All Time

by Steve Flink (no photo)

Synopsis:

Author and tennis historian Steve Flink profiles and ranks the greatest tennis matches in the history of the sport. Roger Federer, Billie Jean King, Rafael Nadal, Bjorn Borg, John McEnroe, Martina Navratilova, Rod Laver, and Chris Evert are all featured in this book that breaks down, analyzes, and puts into historical context the most memorable matches ever played. Practically providing readers with a courtside seat at tennis’ most historic and significant duels, this resource is sure to be the start—and end—of many tennis debates.

Thank you for the adds Alisa

For those who love tennis - anybody else watching Wimbledon - just finished watching the match between Vesnina versus Azarenka - with Azarenka moving on.



Link: http://www.wimbledon.com/index.html

Wimbledon 2017: The Official Story of the Championships

by Paul Newman (no photo)

Synopsis:

Wimbledon 2017: The Official Story of The Championships is the evocative and beautifully illustrated re-telling of another engrossing fortnight of tennis at the All England Club.

With the unprecedented success of Serna Williams, tennis is more popular in the US than it has ever been and Wimbledon remains the highlight of the tennis year.

Written by The Independent's tennis correspondent, Paul Newman, and put together by a team based at Wimbledon for the duration of The Championships, Wimbledon 2017 grants the reader exclusive insider access to the tournament with interviews and analysis, opinion and quotes from the stars of the show.

In addition, the book is packed with stunning photography taken by some of the world's best tennis photographers.

The Grasshopper

by Bernard Suits (no photo)

Synopsis:

In the mid twentieth century the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein famously asserted that games are indefinable; there are no common threads that link them all.

"Nonsense," says the sensible Bernard Suits: "playing a game is a voluntary attempt to overcome unnecessary obstacles."

The short book Suits wrote demonstrating precisely that is as playful as it is insightful, as stimulating as it is delightful. Suits not only argues that games can be meaningfully defined; he also suggests that playing games is a central part of the ideal of human existence, so games belong at the heart of any vision of Utopia.

Originally published in 1978, The Grasshopper is now re-issued with a new introduction by Thomas Hurka and with additional material (much of it previously unpublished) by the author, in which he expands on the ideas put forward in The Grasshopper and answers some questions that have been raised by critics.

Review:

Here is an excerpt from an interview on FiveBooks which discussed this book - Nigel Warburton interviews Philosophy professor and sports enthusiast - David Papineau.

"Now, let’s go to the first of your book choices, Bernard Suits’s The Grasshopper which, for a long time, was a very-little-known classic, and now it’s probably just a little-known classic.

My first choice is a book about the nature and value of sport. I wanted to look at this via Suits because his is probably the best-known full-length work in this area. It’s a wonderfully engaging, eccentric, ingenious book, which has a terrific idea in it, but I think it’s completely wrongheaded about the nature and value of sport.

So I’ll start by explaining the good idea, and then explain why I think it’s not as helpful for understanding sport as many of its enthusiasts suggest.

The book is a quasi-Socratic dialogue with the grasshopper as the main character, and the grasshopper’s idea is that the highest virtue is playing, that he is going to spend all his time playing, doesn’t care if he dies, and the overall argument of the book is that in utopia, where humans have all their material needs satisfied at the push of a button, what we would do would be play games, and therefore playing games is the ideal of human activity.

Freed from all the necessities of having to do things we don’t want to do in order to get the material means of life, we’d do nothing but play games. That’s the main thesis."

More:
https://fivebooks.com/best-books/davi...

Source: FiveBooks

Nigel Warburton interviews Philosophy professor and sports enthusiast - David Papineau.

In a way, you’re demonstrating why this book is a book worth reading because he made you think. It sounds as if many of your ideas have come out in opposition to Suits?

"Absolutely. I’ve been going on about how wrong Suits is, but The Grasshopper is still a terrific book. It’s very eccentric, it digresses with strange characters and fantasies involving the behaviour of his characters, going on for pages and pages.

It’s all very engaging. Is the book itself a game? In the course of the book, he raises all kinds of questions, including that one, and gives them mostly very good answers.

As I said, the book’s absolutely right about games, it seems to me that it knocks Wittgenstein’s negative view on the head. If somebody is interested in trying to understand games, this is exactly the place to start.

It also focuses on the question of why games are valuable. I think Suits gives a wrong answer, but he’s crucial for raising the question, and making us focus on it.

More:
https://fivebooks.com/best-books/davi...

Source: FiveBooks

Both Flesh and Not

by David Foster Wallace

Synopsis:

Brilliant, dazzling, never-before-collected nonfiction writings by "one of America's most daring and talented writers." (Los Angeles Times Book Review).

Both Flesh and Not gathers fifteen of Wallace's seminal essays, all published in book form for the first time.

Never has Wallace's seemingly endless curiosity been more evident than in this compilation of work spanning nearly 20 years of writing.

Here, Wallace turns his critical eye with equal enthusiasm toward Roger Federer and Jorge Luis Borges; Terminator 2 and The Best of the Prose Poem; the nature of being a fiction writer and the quandary of defining the essay; the best underappreciated novels and the English language's most irksome misused words; and much more.

Both Flesh and Not restores Wallace's essays as originally written, and it includes a selection from his personal vocabulary list, an assembly of unusual words and definitions.

Review:

"The following is an interview with David Papineau for FiveBooks:

"Now, your second book is written by somebody who did graduate work in philosophy at Harvard but, unlike many philosophers, moved from very general and abstract thinking to the particular, and became a brilliant essayist and successful novelist."

"This is David Foster Wallace’s Both Flesh and Not, a collection of his essays, the longest and lead essay of which is an essay on Roger Federer called ‘Federer Both Flesh and Not’, that was originally a New York Times’ piece about how watching Federer was like a religious experience. Foster Wallace sadly committed suicide. He was a terrific novelist, and was himself a very interesting character.

Apart from his 1000-page novel, Infinite Jest, he wrote a book about the mathematics of infinity, Everything and More, which is maybe a failed attempt, but a very interesting failed attempt, involving a lot of detailed mathematics.

On top of that, he had been a competitive junior tennis player at state level, and spent many of his teenage years in tennis camps. So he writes about Federer with the kind of knowledge that a competitor himself would have. One of the things in the essay is an appreciation of the value and beauty of sport. He says that the aim of sport is not to be beautiful, to be aesthetic, but inevitably this is something that comes out. There’s a nice phrase he uses, that ‘the beauty of sport is to do really with human beings’ reconciliation with the fact of having a body’ [p.8]. I said, in talking about Suits, that the value of sport lies in the enjoyment, the value of exercising physical skills, and that this goes very deep in human nature.

Maybe not everybody has this facet to their lives, but one of the things that humans do is perfect skills to an absurd and unnatural degree, and not just in sport—if you think of musicians, and typists (when we used to have typists), people can learn to do amazing things with their bodies, and people start honing and developing these skills as an end in itself. It’s a very natural thing for humans to do.

Part of the Federer essay is about the beauty engendered by extreme levels of physical skill, but Foster Wallace also focuses on the mechanics of it. He has this insider’s appreciation of how very difficult this is.

What you’re watching Federer and Nadal doing is at an incredibly high level, something that you only truly appreciate when you’re at the tennis court, rather than watching on television.

When you watch it on television you have very little sense of how hard they’re hitting the ball, and how fast it’s coming. He points out—and this is something that interests me a lot, and was the subject of my first writing about sport—that it is all effectively unconscious when somebody hits a ball very precisely when they’ve only got 400 milliseconds, less than half a second, the time it takes you to blink twice very quickly, between the ball leaving the other opponent’s racket and getting to you.

There’s no time for any conscious thought. It really is all reflexes. At the same time, he points out, Federer is a tactician—he describes one point against Nadal where Federer moves him around and then slows him down so as to open up the court for a crosscourt, and then hits a crosscourt, and it’s very intellectual—and so there’s a real puzzle there about how deliberate, conscious thought can interact with these split-second reflexes.

To be honest, Wallace doesn’t answer this conundrum, but he raises it in a very acute form. He also talks about something else that’s very interesting about high level fast-sporting skills, he talks about how much time Federer seems to have. To Federer is seems as if the ball is coming slowly, he seems to have ample time to be graceful, whereas other players are just rushed.

Something Foster Wallace doesn’t talk about, something that sports science is now illuminating, is the extent to which players know where the ball is coming long before the opponent has hit it, they draw all kinds of inferences from the posture, from the angle of the opponent’s wrist, and so on, and so they’re already moving to where the ball is going to go, and they already know what kind of shot it is going to be, quite a while before it is hit. There’s a nice example of this with Desmond Douglas, who was the top British table tennis player for a long time: he was famed for having fast reactions, and could stand much closer to the table than other players, and take the ball earlier. But when sports scientists tested him, his reactions weren’t that exceptional, and it turned out his ability wasn’t based on fast eye-hand co-ordination at all: it was based purely on the ability, from his experience, to read from the posture, and other cues from his opponent, where the ball was going to be coming before it was hit.

What I like about the Foster Wallace essay is that he gets underneath the surface of sport, he sees how amazing and beautiful it is that athletes can do things which most spectators don’t think much about, and take for granted.

He has a philosopher’s curiosity about how such things are possible. They’re the kinds of things I’ve been writing about in my blog and want to go into more when I write my sports book.

More:
https://fivebooks.com/best-books/davi...

Source: FiveBooks