From Boris Becker’s autobiography, The Player: I was twenty three years old and feeling low again, fed up with this existence in which I did nothing but hit tennis balls. No social life, no friends – the tennis court was the focal point of my world. I could only define myself through tennis: every time […]
Extract from Pat Cash’s autobiography Uncovered: I felt good when I walked onto court. Lendl and I had just been standing in opposite corners of the corridor, but we hadn’t spoken. I didn’t want to wish him good luck or anything else insincere. The weather was sweltering. Somebody said it was close to 100 degrees […]
Extract from Pat Cash’s autobiography Uncovered: To my mind I wasn’t just taking on Jimmy Connors, I would also have the crowd against me. He knew every trick to get them on his side, and he would be doing everything possible to break my focus. It didn’t matter that he was nearly thirty-five years of […]
Extract from Tennis’s strangest matches by Peter Seddon: Saturday 7 July 1979 is a date that still sits proudly in the record books for the legendary Californian Billie Jean King, for it was the day she clinched her twentieth Wimbledon title, a feat which even the most recent legend of the ladies’ game, Martina Navratilova, […]
Extract from Inside tennis – a season on the pro tour by Peter Bodo and June Harrison: Jimmy Connors just wasn’t there. For once in his life, the eagerness of his mind did not reach his arms and legs. On a clear, fine day, he let Borg walk right by him, into the pantheon of […]
Extract from Inside tennis – a season on the pro tour by Peter Bodo and June Harrison: On Friday, the morning of the women’s final between Navratilova and Evert, the air is cool and crisp; the packed galleries of the Centre Court hum with anticipation. The women exchange breaks to start the match, then play […]
