Book list for tennis history/former pro players...

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Nathaniel_Near

Guest
Please contribute by offering titles of books that are recommended or essential reading for tennis history, whether it be the history as a whole or a look at individual players of the past.


Thank you.
 

treblings

Hall of Fame
A handful of summers - gordon forbes
Too soon to panic - gordon forbes

Forbes was a south african who played the amateur circuit in the 50´s,
.....for a handful of summers.
both books are mainly but not exclusively about that period of time.
he writes beautiful and tells a lot of stories and anecdotes about life on the tour and his former comrades, like Laver, Hoad, and many others.
 

RF-17-GOAT

Semi-Pro
Roger Federer-The Greatest
Pete's Autobiography
Andre's Autobiography
Murray: Coming of age

looking forward to read rafa's book in a few weeks.
 

treblings

Hall of Fame
the tennis set by rex bellamy.
covers the first four seasons of open tennis from 1968 to 71. lots of stories about the players and the major championships. highly recommended reading

@ OP: if the idea of a book list catches on, why not list all the books at the beginning of the thread?
 

MAXXply

Hall of Fame
A few on my bookshelf:

Mr Nastase
Game Set and Match: The Tennis Boom of the 60s and 70s by Herbert Warren Wind
Home (Evonne Goolagong)
Pat Cash Uncovered
Bad News For Mcenroe (Bill Scanlon)
The Player (Becker)
Winner Loses All (Borg tell-all written by a disgruntled former business partner of Borg)
Tilden, by Frank Deford
The Game, by Jack Kramer
Newk, by John Newcombe
Aces and Places, by Harry Hopman
My Life with Lew, by Lew Hoad's widow Jenny
Rocket to the Top (Pat Rafter bio)

...and many others...
 
N

Nathaniel_Near

Guest
NatF, Thanks.

I would recommed "The Game" from Jack Kramer (perhaps you have got it already): An informative book but a bit biased towards Vines and Budge and Riggs and a bit unfair towards Laver and Rosewall...

As you might know I have published a Rosewall bio in German language which is out of stock now. I believe Carlo Colussi has used it for his Rosewall article(s) on wikipedia.

I recommend Rowley's book (Peter died last year) of 1975 and/or Naughton's book (published 2012). Rowley's book is more favouring Rosewall than Naughton's...Both are very informative.

More books:

Twenty Year at the Top (Peter Rowley)
Muscles: The Story Of Ken Rosewall (Richard Naughton)
 
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urban

Legend
Frank Deford, Big Bill Tilden, Triumph and Tragedy,
Gianni Clerici, 500 years of tennis (I have an Italian and German edition), lavishly illustrated book, more European style with emphasis on cultural traditions like the picture of dying Adonis by Tiepolo with a tennis racket in his dying arms.
Rex Bellamy, Love Thirty (plus other books by this author).
David Gray, Shades of Gray (not the mummy porn),
John Barretts Wimbledon history books,
Lance Tingay, 100 Years of tennis.
Michel Sutter, Tennis (French around 1985)
Joe or so Schinkel, Tennis (around 1975)
Eugene Scott, Tennis (around 1973),
some books by Roderich Menzel (in German)
On modern tennis: Topspin, by Eliot Berry (who sadly died a few years ago)

a webiside with nice illustrations: www.histoiredutennis.com
 
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DolgoSantoro

Professional
I don't know if I'd call it an essential, but High Strung by Stephen Tignor was really enjoyable for me. A nice look at some of the personalities who were playing in the 70s/80s and it tells some interesting stories about Mac, Borg, Connors, Nastase, etc. Teaches about an interesting time in tennis' history, and does it very entertainingly too.
 
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kiki

Banned
Schinkel book on Connors (The champ)
Les cannibals du tennis
Short Circuit
Carnival at FH
Sutter photo book at 79 season which covers RG,W,USO,Masters
yes, the Clerici one is a màster piece
Of course, Laver's My Tennis
 

urban

Legend
Adding a few more classics:
John McPhee, Levels of the Game, on the Ashe-Graebner semi USO 1968
John McPhee, Wimbledon - A Celebration, 1972 (with great photos of the famous Life-Photograph Max Eisenstaedt.
C. Phyllipps, The tennis set, A Tennis anthology, with fine articles on or by Tilden, Hoad, Drobny, Laver, Sampras and others.
Richard Evans, Open tennis,
Digby Baltzell, Tennis in the Gentlemen era.
The Telegraph Tennis Book
Max Robertson; The Tennis encyclopedia , 1974
John Parsons, The Encyclopedia of Tennis, 1989
 
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Rosewall

Rookie
Bad News for McEnroe by Bill Scanlon. Even though McEnroe is my favorite player of all time, Scanlon's obsession with him did not ruin the book for me. What I got out of the book were a lot of insights and anecdotes about professional tennis in the 70s and 80s I had never read anywhere else.
 

PDJ

G.O.A.T.
A handful of summers - gordon forbes
Too soon to panic - gordon forbes

Forbes was a south african who played the amateur circuit in the 50´s,
.....for a handful of summers.
both books are mainly but not exclusively about that period of time.
he writes beautiful and tells a lot of stories and anecdotes about life on the tour and his former comrades, like Laver, Hoad, and many others.

Read both: and the former - 'handful'- is a must read. I'm too young to know the period well but it's as if being transported back. Incidentally I knew, and played tennis with the late Heather Segal (she's mentioned quite a bit, given her ex husband) and not only a hell of a player, but a great person whith a brilliant sense of humour. Sadly missed.
 

Clintspin

Professional
Courting Danger by Dan Leatherman
The Art of Lawn Tennis by Bill Tilden
Methods of Modern Lawn Tennis by J. Parmly Paret and many other experts
A Handful of Summers by Gordon Forbes
 

Gonzalito17

Banned
Hard Courts John Feinstein
Inside Tennis Bodo
Pete
Andre Open
Winning Ugly Brad Gilbert
Facing Federer Symposium of a Champion
The Game Jack Kramer
Levels of the Game
 

heninfan99

Talk Tennis Guru
Bud Collins' Encyclopedia of Tennis & Agassi's Open
are the two excellent tennis books.

Technical Tennis is a great book for insights into physics & gear.

There are many bad tennis books...
 

Wolbo

Rookie
Bud Collins' Encyclopedia of Tennis
While I agree that Collin's Encyclopedia is a must have for tennis fans interested in history it has quite a lot of errors, misspelled names and incorrect scores. Hopefully he lives long enough to publish an updated version that has gone through a more thorough editing process.
 
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Wolbo

Rookie
Frank Deford, Big Bill Tilden, Triumph and Tragedy,
Gianni Clerici, 500 years of tennis (I have an Italian and German edition), lavishly illustrated book, more European style with emphasis on cultural traditions like the picture of dying Adonis by Tiepolo with a tennis racket in his dying arms.
Rex Bellamy, Love Thirty (plus other books by this author).
David Gray, Shades of Gray (not the mummy porn),
John Barretts Wimbledon history books,
Lance Tingay, 100 Years of tennis.
Michel Sutter, Tennis (French around 1985)
Joe or so Schinkel, Tennis (around 1975)
Eugene Scott, Tennis (around 1973),

That's a good list to cover tennis history.

Barrett's Wimbledon books (updated version was published in 2013) are beautiful and well-written. Unfortunately I've never been able to get my hands on Michel Sutter's book.
 

DBH

New User
"Tennis styles and stylists" by Paul Metzler (from 1969).

This is a neat and well-written book with a lot of technical details about the games of the great players, as well as interesting commentary about who were considered (as of 1969) to be the greatest players of all time.

DBH
 

Cam24

New User
I recently acquired the Lew Hoad 1958 autobiography "My game". Quite good even if it is probably a bit bland compared to say the Agassi book or even Mac/ Connors books maybe. Surprised he said he felt more bad about Rosewall losing the 1956 Wimbledon final more than feeling good about winning it. Lots of good chapters it looks like for people into that history (seems to highlight stuff like the Davis cup, Wimbledon wins, injuries, upbringing/ life as a tennis protigy)

Pat Cash's book (Uncovered) is also a good overlooked one. He can be a bit whiny at times, but still decent reading for his fans

Altho Agassi book and Laver's about winning the 1969 slam (champions mind) are the best. The worst or most boring imo are Murray's 07 autobiography, Nastase's book (couldn't finish) and Sampras's.
 
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