An engineer overthinks tennis in a daily journal.
Fiend At Court spent a virtual six weeks with Dennis Ralston in 2020. To be more precise, this site spent six weeks on a structured improvement program inspired and derived from Six Weeks to a Better Level of Tennis, a book he authored with Barry Tarshis. Unfortunately, Ralston passed away last month following a long battle with cancer. Revisiting the Fiend at Court “Six Weeks” project became compulsory with his passing.
There is a lot to break down in Marshall Jon Fisher’s A Terrible Splendor: Three Extraordinary Men, a World Poised for War, and the Greatest Tennis Match Ever Played. On the surface, the book is about a tennis match between Don Budge and Gottfried Von Cramm played during the 1937 Davis Cup. It is also a unique account of the rise of Adolph Hitler and the Nazi party in the run up to World War 2.
When I first embarked on the project manifested by the Fiend at Court site, I would have asserted that I have little personal interest in the early history of international and professional tennis. The first appearances of early tennis stars in what was published was in the context of newspaper articles summarizing proposed changes to the ITF Rules of Tennis of their time. I am embarrassed to say, that some names that I did not initially recognize are now turning up repeatedly in the tennis books of their era.
I am suddenly obsessed with literary and media claims of “The Greatest” tennis matches. It was a natural next step as my examination of Strokes of Genius concluded. Strokes of Genius was published in 2009 with the phrase in the subtitle “The Greatest Match Ever Played.” By sheer coincidence, a second book was also published in the same year with a similar phrase in the subtitle. Consequently, “A Terrible Splendor: Three Extraordinary Men, a World Poised for War, and the Greatest Tennis Match Ever Played” is the next book which will be tackled by this site. It is the most natural progression.
Strokes of Genius: Federer, Nadal, and the Greatest Match Ever Played is a book by Jon Wertheim about the 2008 Wimbledon Final between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. It would be weird if it were about a match between two other players. While Strokes of Genius is ostensibly about the match, in reality it is a portrait of the rivalry between the Federer and Nadal as it stood at that time.
I finally completed my reading of Levels of the Game by John McPhee. The book is a detailed account of the 1968 semi-final match between by Arthur Ashe and Clark Graebner play at Forest Hills and is widely regarded as a literary masterpiece. The match is the foreground of for a much deeper cultural and societal examination. The backgrounds and attitudes which shaped each player are interwoven with the match play.
Levels of the Game is a detailed account of the 1968 semi-final match between by Arthur Ashe and Clark Graebner play at Forest Hills. The match is the foreground of for a much deeper cultural and societal examination. The backgrounds and attitudes which shaped each player are interwoven with the match play.
When I was in school, I never failed to complete required reading assignments. I simply loved books too much to not manage to find the time to read them. Especially when an essay or a test was in the offing. Consequently, on the eve of the publication of today’s content, I had the completely new experience that I had failed to complete my planned reading. I basically owe a book report on material that I have not read. I did what any self-respecting student would do in that situation: I watched the movie.
I regularly consult list of the best selling tennis books on amazon. Rafa, an autobiography of Rafael Nadal with John Carlin, currently sits at #8 on that list. It’s really #6 because The Inner Game of Tennis and Andre Agassi’s Open each appear twice above that spot.
Tis the season for recommending thoughtful gifts for tennis players. Today we will consider the three books that every tennis player should own, rather than read. A book that is a “must read” can usually be cast aside after initial consumption. The books that should be owned are those which get re-read and consulted over time. They are enduring.