I just got and looked into a new book: The History of tennis. Legendary Champions-Magical Moments, by Richard Evans, Rizzoli 2021. Evans is a long time tennis journalist, who wrote books on Marty Riessen, Nastase, McEnroe and Open Tennis. In the 1970s he worked for a while as secretary for the ATP, and knew from first hand about the struggles of the different managing groups at the outset of open tennis. His new tennis history goes through the decennia, and is richly illustrated. In my view, the pictures are the best part of the book, mostly they seem to come from the Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport. Some rare pictures can be found, like private photos of Perry, von Cramm, Budge, Hoad (of whom Evans always has been a big fan), Gonzalez or Sedgman. There is (page 62) a stunning Vogue-like picture of the beautiful Helen Wills by the famous Garbo photographer Edward Streichen. The best looking guy in long white flannels is certainly Errol Flynn (before he drank too much), with Frank Shields, Brookes grandfather, a close second (when he was sober).
Evans writes a lot about the organizing forces of the game. What the books text imo lacks, is more pure tennis, i mean, a closer description of matches, styles, careers, records, personalities of players, where a writer like Peter Underwood laid his focus on. Its disappointing, that nothing of the new findings about the pre open and early open era, which we here are discussing, has gone into the book. Evans is a bit writing out his own older books, and there is not much new insight in his text. Some pretty bad errors and typos also disturb the reading. That Nadal lost a Wim final 1-6, 3-6, 0-6 to Federer (page 348), is only possible in the sweetest dream of the biggest Fedfans. And some old myths, for instance that Gonzalez carried Rosewall on their first pro series, are without any critical comment reiterated.
So in short, who wants to look into many rare, beautiful pictures of tennis, finds a lot of pleasure here, the text is a bit secondary, although the author is an experienced expert.
Evans writes a lot about the organizing forces of the game. What the books text imo lacks, is more pure tennis, i mean, a closer description of matches, styles, careers, records, personalities of players, where a writer like Peter Underwood laid his focus on. Its disappointing, that nothing of the new findings about the pre open and early open era, which we here are discussing, has gone into the book. Evans is a bit writing out his own older books, and there is not much new insight in his text. Some pretty bad errors and typos also disturb the reading. That Nadal lost a Wim final 1-6, 3-6, 0-6 to Federer (page 348), is only possible in the sweetest dream of the biggest Fedfans. And some old myths, for instance that Gonzalez carried Rosewall on their first pro series, are without any critical comment reiterated.
So in short, who wants to look into many rare, beautiful pictures of tennis, finds a lot of pleasure here, the text is a bit secondary, although the author is an experienced expert.
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