No sport has gone through the seismic changes that rocked tennis when the game, long a holdout against professionalism and creeping commercialism, abandoned its roots as a genteel, amateurs-only enterprise and became a pro sport, vying for the heart of the public with rivals like soccer, NFL football, or NBA basketball.Peter Bodo, who has covered tennis since the dawn of this "Open" era as the chief writer for TENNIS magazine, was there to witness this transition and what it promise...

Early in July of 2015, tennis will celebrate the 40th anniversary of what might be the greatest upset in the annals of tennis.There have been other key matches in which the disparity between the favourite and the victorious underdog may have been more pronounced by standards of the sport. But none has been more resonant, or flush with meaning and contrasts. For this was not just a contest between a mercurial, seemingly unstoppable prodigy and an undemonstrative vet...

In It's Not My Fault, author Joshua Shifrin helps tennis players make sense of their most monumental losses on the court. The next time a player goes down in defeat, he or she can always explain the woeful loss with "My opponent was a pusher . . . I can't play against pushers." Or after a bad shot, tennis gurus might try to get out of dodge by uttering, "There was a leaf on the court and I couldn't concentrate."Shifrin has crafted 150 funny--but all-too-real--excuses for p...

Pete Sampras is arguably the greatest player tennis has ever seen. A man whose hard-nosed work ethic led to an unprecedented No. 1 world ranking for 286 consecutive weeks, and whose prodigious talent made possible an as yet unbroken 14 Grand Slam record. Yet while more vocal rivals often grabbed the headlines, Pete gave everything on the court, revealing little outside it.Now, in A Champion’s Mind, this very private champion, who so often recoiled from letting the world ‘inside his ...

Roger Federer is not only one of the greatest tennis players ever to pick up a racket - if not the greatest - but he is one of the global icons of our time. Characterised by a mixture of passion and calmness, a fierce competitor with a regal bearing, he is both an athlete and an ambassador, a street fighter and a statesman.But who is he really? And what are the experiences and influences that have shaped him into the world figure he is today?...

He is one of the most beloved athletes in history and one of the most gifted men ever to step onto a tennis court – but from early childhood Andre Agassi hated the game.‘engaging, thrilling…a superbly written book’ Michael Atherton, The Times‘Honest in a way that such books seldom are … An uncommonly well-written sports memoir’ New York Times‘stunningly good’ Lynne Truss, The Times...

The wildly entertaining Sunday Times bestseller'This book deserves to be seeded No. 1' Daily MailFifteen years after his massive bestseller Serious, John McEnroe is back and ready to talk.Who are the game's winners and losers? What's it like playing guitar onstage with the Rolling Stones, hitting balls with today's greats, breaking bread with his former on-court nemeses, getting scammed by an international art dealer, and r...

Well-known sports journalist and writer of the #1 tennis blog on the web, TennisWorld, Peter Bodo's newest eBook is devoted to the player who holds seven Wimbledon and seventeen Grand Slam titles, Olympic gold medalist Roger Federer. With his unique insights into The Mighty Fed’s playing style, greatest rivalries, stunning winning streak (and possible decline), and even his fashion choices, Bodo chronicles the golden middle period of Federer’s career, 2006-2009. Including interviews with F...

The inspirational memoir of the Canadian boxer who fought some of the greatest heavyweights in history, including Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier, but lost everything outside the ring.From a tough Toronto childhood as the only son of immigrant parents, through a twenty-three-year career that earned him induction into the World Boxing Hall of Fame, to the public tragedies that decimated his family long after the cheering stopped, George Chuvalo tells his life story as ...

A sweeping saga of the success—and excess—of an iconic American family.Demanding and enigmatic, patriarch Conrad Hilton's visionary ideas and unyielding will established the model for the modern luxury hotel industry. But outside the boardroom, Conrad struggled with emotional detachment, failed marriages, and conflicted Catholicism. Then there were his children: Playboy Nicky Hilton's tragic alcoholism and marriage to Elizabeth Taylor was the stuff of tabloid legen...

"A book full of aces....A true page-turner."— Associated Press"This is good stuff, and it's written with flair."— The OregonianHigh Strung by Stephen Tignor is the gripping untold story of the fiercest rivalry in the history of professional tennis. Viewed through the lens of the fabled 1981 U.S. Open match between Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe, High Strung brings the golden age of tennis vibrantly alive once more. A fascinatin...

From golden-voiced ingénue to bus-driving mother of a pop band, Shirley Jones sets aside her wholesome, squeaky clean image in a memoir as shockingly candid, deliciously juicy, and delightfully frank as the star herself.“You are going to meet the real flesh-and-blood Shirley Jones, not just the movie star or Mrs. Partridge,” says the beloved film, television, and stage actress and singer of her long-awaited memoir, an account as shockingly direct, deliciously juicy...