Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #28776 in Books
• Published on: 2008-04-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

Customer Reviews

Better athlete than author
Hoo boy. More whining from a third-rater* about how he doesn't get enough respect; I've just finished reading Nathalie Tauziat's opus, and now this. But at least Mlle. Tauziat was the French Nº 1 for seven years.

The bulk of the book is concerned with Mr Spadea's year of 2005 in tennis, with brief descriptions of, and anecdotes about, players, coaches, fans, and other denizens of the tennis world, including women. The author's relationships with these are also described. By his own admission he doesn't try to get close to other male players (p.59), and this in itself is a problem for the book, because he's unable to portray them with any depth; nevertheless, I found myself hoping he makes a lot a money from it, because if all his relationships with women are like those described herein, one has to wonder if he'll be left with much else.

There's certainly scope for an "in-the-trenches account of life near the top of the pro tennis tour". Unfortunately, this one is neither particularly interesting, nor particularly informative; it's too self-centred to be either.

All of this does not of course mean that Mr Spadea is a bad person, or that getting to the Top 20 is a contemptible achievement. Nor does it mean that his book is entirely without interest (hence the three stars). In fact, some of it has a kind of horrifying fascination, and parts of it (such as the tips on how to pick up girls) are unintentionally hilarious.

But if you want an informative, charming and witty book about tennis, get Gordon Forbes's A Handful of Summers.

*Rule of thumb (admittedly arbitrary, but at least well-defined) for the purpose of this review:

First-rater -- those who have won three different Slam championships; or in a particular Slam have won it three times, or have won the Triple Crown (singles/doubles/mixed) in one year .

Second rater -- all other Slam champions.

Third-rater -- everyone else.

This is not as brutal as the obvious definition, which also has the defect of not being applicable before the ranking system was invented:

First-rater -- those who are or have been Number 1.
Second rater -- those who are or have been Number 2.
Third-rater -- those who are or have been Number 3.