Serving First: Dreams Realized and Lessons Learned from Family, Friends and a Life in Tennis is ostensibly the autobiography of Charlie Pasarell, but describing it simply as the story of a former professional tennis player considerably understates the life covered within its pages. Pasarell was the No. 1 ranked American player in 1967, competed in Davis Cup, helped establish the ATP, played an important role in developing the computer ranking system, and eventually became one of the driving forces behind the tournament we now know as Indian Wells. His career provides a remarkable window into the development of modern professional tennis because he did not merely witness many of those changes. He helped design them.
Pasarell tells that story with Joel Drucker, whose involvement deserves more than a passing mention. Drucker is a tennis historian and experienced writer who understands the full significance of the people and events appearing throughout Pasarell’s life. The collaboration gives the book rich historical perspective without losing Pasarell’s voice. The result feels less like a recitation of accomplishments than a thoughtful examination of how one experience informed the next.
In 1966, Pasarell trained with the Australian Davis Cup team under legendary coach Harry Hopman. The experience came immediately before the best season of Pasarell’s playing career, when he finished 1967 as the top-ranked American. It also influenced how he later thought about Davis Cup and tennis more broadly. Pasarell comes across throughout the book as someone who paid attention not only to what successful people did, but why their methods worked.
That quality is particularly evident in his relationship with Arthur Ashe. The two became close friends at UCLA, and their lives continued to intersect through some of the most consequential moments in tennis history. Pasarell was with Ashe during his run to the 1975 Wimbledon title over Jimmy Connors, providing strategic insight that drew on the same understanding of point construction he had developed as a junior. Their relationship eventually extended far beyond tennis. Pasarell was also by Ashe’s side years later when his friend announced publicly that he had AIDS.
The friendship with Ashe also became part of Pasarell’s contribution to professional tennis away from competition. Together, they wrote the ATP Code of Conduct in response to the behavior of players such as Ilie Nastase and Connors. For anyone who has ever suspected that their contemporaries were also exasperated by some of the antics from that era, apparently they were. Pasarell was also instrumental in the founding of the ATP and played an important role in developing its ranking system. Once again, the common thread is design. He was interested in creating systems that made tennis work better.
I particularly appreciated Pasarell’s description of Gladys Heldman. His affection and admiration for her are apparent, but more important is the credit he gives her for what she accomplished. Heldman’s role in creating women’s professional tennis is sometimes reduced to a few familiar historical milestones. Seeing her work through Pasarell’s perspective adds another firsthand account of how influential she actually was.
Eventually, Pasarell faced a problem that confronts every professional athlete. Playing careers end, while most of life (hopefully) remains. Serving First spends considerable time exploring the creation of a new identity within the sport after no longer being defined as a player. Pasarell deftly found that identity, and his second tennis career arguably had an even larger effect on the sport than his first.
The creation and development of Indian Wells is the clearest example. Pasarell was not simply a tournament executive. He was an entrepreneur with a talent for venue design, and the story of building the event provides an unusual case study in both. Decisions about the facility were informed by how players and fans actually experience a tennis tournament.
The personal history woven through the book helps explain why he approached those opportunities the way he did. There is considerable material about Pasarell’s family, including what at times reads almost like a series of love letters to the people who shaped him. That could easily have become tedious in a tennis autobiography. Instead, it establishes the values behind many of the decisions that follow. His life in tennis was closely connected to a broader belief in service and the responsibility to do something useful with the opportunities placed in front of him.
That idea also gives the title Serving First another interpretation. Serving is obviously fundamental to tennis, but Pasarell’s story gradually becomes less concerned with what he accomplished as a player and more interested in what he contributed afterward. His influence can be found in the ATP, its rankings and rules, Davis Cup, Indian Wells, and in the people whose lives intersected with his own.
One of Pasarell’s observations about tennis captures much of what makes the book work. The sport has a peculiar way of turning heroes into opponents and rivals into friends. Eventually, everyone meets at the net and shakes hands. His own life repeatedly follows that pattern.
Serving First is as much about what happens after playing tennis as it is about playing the long game. Pasarell had an exceptional competitive career, but his larger contribution came from figuring out what to do when that career ended. He helped build institutions, relationships, and one of the great tournaments in the sport. Yet his retrospective suggests that even those accomplishments are not quite the point. What lasts is what we do for other people and what we leave behind for those who follow.
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