Long Island Tennis Magazine's Literary Corner

You might not think a 35-page pamphlet could take a reader on a rollercoaster ride with stops that pose questions about death, the nature of time, the mysteries of the male anatomy, the limits of language and whether a truly stellar performance by a ballboy can win back the love of a ballgirl. But...Read more

I am almost the perfect reader for Marshall Jon Fisher’s A Terrible Splendor: Three Extraordinary Men, a World Poised for War, and the Greatest Tennis Match Ever Played , the story of the 1937 Davis Cup match between the American Don Budge and Germany’s Baron Gottfried Von Cramm. I am a literary...Read more

Among the many fascinating tidbits of tennis history, the reader can glean from The Education of a Tennis Player by Rod Laver with Bud Collins is that accusations of stinginess between top rivals didn’t start with Andre Agassi’s jokes about Pete Sampras being a lousy tipper. Here is Laver on his...Read more

Hardcourt Confidential By Patrick McEnroe and Peter Bodo Patrick McEnroe’s account of his 25 years in and around pro tennis makes a fascinating read. After Andre Agassi’s book, Open , any tennis celebrity’s book is likely to fall short in the sensationalism department. And while Hardcourt...Read more

Eleanor Dwight’s story of the life of Jimmy Van Alen, the man who gave tennis the tie-breaker, presents a much more versatile and accomplished figure than I’d expected to encounter. I’m a hardcore tennis fan, sure, but if the only interesting thing Jimmy Van Alen did in his life was to invent the...Read more

Last year was a tough year to publish a tennis biography if your name wasn’t Andre Agassi. But Caroline Seebohm’s account of another baseliner who also had the best return of serve of his era should not be overlooked. Pancho Segura, the Ecuadorian pro with the two-handed forehand, has been a tennis...Read more

First things first … it’s hard to talk about Andre Agassi’s autobiography Open without touching on the shocking substance abuse revelations in the book. But, the only way to begin to discuss this book is to tackle one of its humiliating revelations front and center: Agassi’s former coach Brad...Read more

In this biography of Roger Federer, Quest for Perfection: The Roger Federer Story, Swiss tennis writer Rene Stauffer offers a glimpse of the stages in the development of the recently dethroned U.S. Open champ. Stauffer, who had the cooperation of Federer and his family, goes all the way back to the...Read more

I have never been a fan of reading encyclopedias. So it was with some trepidation that I opened Randy Walker’s book On This Day in Tennis History . The thought of reading about things that happened in tennis from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31 through the years sounded slightly, but only slightly, more fun than...Read more

Monica Seles’ memoir Getting a Grip: On My Body, My Mind, My Self , published by the Avery Books imprint at Penguin Press, tells the story of the unluckiest tennis champion. The nine-time Grand Slam winner writes about the difficult emotional journey she endured during her playing years. The...Read more