Rafa, Raw and Real

Nadal's Autobiography Reveals Much

The bronze lad has everything: Great looks, a good attitude and 10 Grand Slams. And now young Rafael Nadal has an autobiography entitled, simply, “Rafa.” You might dismiss the notion of a 20-something kid coming out with a bio. The book —written with John Carlin, (who penned the celebrated volume “Invictus,” on Nelson Mandela) — [...]

Book Review: Epic

Epic: John McEnroe, Bjorn Borg and the Greatest Tennis Season Ever By Matthew Cronin, John Wiley & Sons, 312 pages, $25.95 Where were you when Bjorn Borg beat John McEnroe to win Wimbledon ’80? Every tennis fan (of a certain age) knows the living room or clubhouse where he watched those five electrifying sets. It was the [...]

2011 Racket Review

Aerodynamics, energy transfer, swing-to-weight ratios, torsional stability? Time to break out your lab coat and fire up the Bunsen burner. IT’s California playtest team cuts through the mad science of racket technology (so you don’t have to). BABOLAT Pure Storm Head Size: 98 Length: 27 Weight: 10.4 oz. Retail: $180 • Babolat’s Pure Storm line debuted [...]

’10 Shoe Review: Have It Your Way

Let’s face it: these days we want it all. A phone that’s also a camera. A hybrid car that runs on gas or electricity. A laptop that doubles as a top-of-the-line DVD player. It’s no different when it comes to shopping for a new pair of tennis shoes. We expect stability, durability, breathability, wickability, playability, [...]

Book Review: Tennis and Philosophy

Tennis and Philosophy: What the Racket Is All About Edited by David Baggett University Press of Kentucky Perhaps because of its aristocratic origins, perhaps because of its country club image, perhaps because so many literary types slum as sportswriters, tennis has always had the aura of a thinking man’s game. This reputation has persisted despite [...]

PMac: Little Brother, Big Insights

You’d be hard pressed to find a guy with more perspective on our sport than Patrick McEnroe, an astute observer who’s experienced the game from every angle imaginable – from inside the locker room, the court, the Davis Cup captain’s bench, the broadcast booth and the boardroom. All of which makes “Harcourt Confidential: Tales From [...]

Book Review: The Education of a Tennis Player

The Education of a Tennis Player Rod Laver with Bud Collins New Chapter Press, 248 pages “Scrawny and slow.” That’s what Harry Hopman thought of Rod Laver when he first laid eyes on the humble Queensland farm boy, who was introduced to the game on a homemade ant-bed court. So much for first impressions. Laver went [...]

Shoe Review 2010

Our 2010 Buyer's Guide

Used to be that you needed a trunkload of shoes to get you through the busy tennis calendar. One pair for the hard courts. Another for grass. Yet another to slide around in on clay. You needed one pair for practice, another solely for matchplay. Before you knew it, your Imelda-would-be-proud shoe closet was taking [...]

Racket Review 2009

Our 2009 Buyer's Guide

When my wife informed me that Emporio Armani was now pushing its own signature tennis racket, the EA7, I’ve got to admit, I was intrigued. Italian designers producing tennis rackets? How fashion forward of them. I love it. This is style and performance at its best. Haute couture meets the hard courts. I thought, “I’ve [...]

Strokes Of Genius: Federer, Nadal, and the Greatest Match Ever Played

Wertheim revisits Nadal’s five-set triumph in shot-by-shot detail.

Having recently rescued a copy of The Devil in the White City (Erik Larson’s acclaimed account of the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893) from the publishers clearinghouse that is my bedside table, I can’t help but wonder why it took more than a century for someone to vividly document such a pivotal moment in American [...]