No sport has gone through the seismic changes that rocked tennis when the game, long a holdout against professionalism and creeping commercialism, abandoned its roots as a genteel, amateurs-only enterprise and became a pro sport, vying for the heart of the public with rivals like soccer, NFL football, or NBA basketball.Peter Bodo, who has covered tennis since the dawn of this "Open" era as the chief writer for TENNIS magazine, was there to witness this transition and what it promise...

This true story of an innocent boy growing up in Hitler's Germany is "a unique memoir…highly recommended."— Midwest Book ReviewPeter and his brothers saw the war not as military or national history, but as the adventure of everyday living. They experienced bombs dropping, soldiers occupying their home, and prisoners of war marching through the streets—all of which seemed like mere intrusions into their childhood existence. They not only survived, but thriv...

In It's Not My Fault, author Joshua Shifrin helps tennis players make sense of their most monumental losses on the court. The next time a player goes down in defeat, he or she can always explain the woeful loss with "My opponent was a pusher . . . I can't play against pushers." Or after a bad shot, tennis gurus might try to get out of dodge by uttering, "There was a leaf on the court and I couldn't concentrate."Shifrin has crafted 150 funny--but all-too-real--excuses for p...

Pete Sampras is arguably the greatest player tennis has ever seen. A man whose hard-nosed work ethic led to an unprecedented No. 1 world ranking for 286 consecutive weeks, and whose prodigious talent made possible an as yet unbroken 14 Grand Slam record. Yet while more vocal rivals often grabbed the headlines, Pete gave everything on the court, revealing little outside it.Now, in A Champion’s Mind, this very private champion, who so often recoiled from letting the world ‘inside his ...

Early in July of 2015, tennis will celebrate the 40th anniversary of what might be the greatest upset in the annals of tennis.There have been other key matches in which the disparity between the favourite and the victorious underdog may have been more pronounced by standards of the sport. But none has been more resonant, or flush with meaning and contrasts. For this was not just a contest between a mercurial, seemingly unstoppable prodigy and an undemonstrative vet...

Pete Sampras is arguably the greatest tennis player ever, a man whose hard-nosed work ethic led to an unprecedented number one world ranking for 286 weeks, and whose prodigious talent made possible a record-setting fourteen Grand Slam titles. While his more vocal rivals sometimes grabbed the headlines, Pete always preferred to let his racket do the talking.Until now.In A Champion’s Mind, the tennis great who so often exhibited visible discomfort with letting people...

Pete Sampras is arguably the greatest tennis player ever, a man whose hard-nosed work ethic led to an unprecedented number one world ranking for 286 consecutive weeks, and whose prodigious talent made possible a record-setting fourteen Grand Slam titles. While his more vocal rivals sometimes grabbed the headlines, Pete always preferred to let his racket do the talking.Until now.In A Champion’s Mind, the tennis great who so often exhibited visible discomfort with le...

Pete Sampras is arguably the greatest tennis player ever, a man whose hard-nosed work ethic led to an unprecedented number one world ranking for 286 weeks, and whose prodigious talent made possible a record-setting fourteen Grand Slam titles. While his more vocal rivals sometimes grabbed the headlines, Pete always preferred to let his racket do the talking.Until now.In A Champion’s Mind, the tennis great who so often exhibited visible discomfort with letting people...

Tennis star Rafael Nadal reveals the secrets of the sport and the inspiring stories behind his success in this riveting memoir, written with award-winning journalist John Carlin.What makes a champion? What does it take to be the best in the world at your sport? Rafael Nadal has the answers.It begins in Mallorca, where the tight-knit Nadal family has lived for generations. Coached by his uncle Toni from the age of four and taught humility and respect by his ...

The Outsider is a no-holds-barred memoir by the original bad boy of tennis, Jimmy Connors.Connors ignited the tennis boom in the 1970s with his aggressive style of play, turning his matches with John McEnroe, Bjorn Borg, and Ivan Lendl into prizefights. But it was his prolonged dedication to his craft that won him the public’s adoration. He capped off one of the most remarkable runs in tennis history at the age of 39 when he reached the semifinals of the 1991 U.S. Open, co...

Jimmy Connors took the tennis world by storm like no player in the history of the game. A shaggy-haired working-class kid from the wrong side of the tracks, he was prepared to battle for every point, to shout and scream until he was heard, and he didn't care whom he upset in doing so. He was brash, he was a brat. He was a crowd-pleaser, a revolutionary. And he won more tournaments - an astonishing 109 - than any other man in history, including eight Grand Slam singles titles.Only n...

A no-holds-barred, intimate memoir by John McEnroe—the bad boy of professional tennis.John McEnroe stunned the tennis elite when he came out of nowhere to make the Wimbledon semifinals at the age of eighteen—and just a few years later, he was ranked number one in the world. You Cannot Be Serious is McEnroe at his most personal, an intimate examination of Johnny Mac, the kid from Queens, and his “wild ride” through the world of professional tennis at a boom...