Trading the Sand for Dirt
Plus, gone but not forgotten... Nadal leads the way in new tennis books.
The Warrior: Rafael Nadal and His Kingdom of Clay by Christopher Clarey: John Murray (15 May 2025), 368 pages
Does the world really need another book about Rafael Nadal, I thought to myself as I saw that The Master tennis writer Christopher Clarey, formerly of the New York Times, would be releasing his second book about number two of the big three: The Warrior: Rafael Nadal and His Kingdom of Clay just three years from writing his pièce de résistance about Roger Federer. A recent count on Amazon.com pulled up no fewer than a dozen biographies of Nadal, including a ghostwritten biography, children’s books, Japanese anime, and advice tomes on how to play like the man himself (turn those water bottles in a certain direction, or maybe adjust the Nike shorts a certain way?) Yet, Clarey’s is pitched as “an intimate, original biography… the first to cover his entire career.” Fair play… now that the career is over.
But Clarey is one of the tennis world’s Prince ball cannons, and if anyone knows anything about the trade publishing world, he likely has a multi-volume book deal to fulfil. Kudos to “one of the world's pre-eminent tennis writers,” however, after his parent New York Times merged with The Athletic and essentially eliminated the Times’ entire sports department. Clarey, unfortunately, hit that ball too soon and resigned before the takeover — an unforeseen choke. Yet, he nonetheless fought back and emerged on top doing his best Delpo. So who else but Clarey can note that when the ambidextrous young Nadal — who was actually taught by the legendary Uncle Tony to play with his left hand to give him an advantage — arrived on the scene in 2005, the record for men's singles titles at the French Open stood at six. In 20 years, Nadal has notched fourteen titles on that bull-logo-ed Nike bandana of his, evidently one of the greatest sporting achievements in history. Clarey, ever the gentleman tennis writer who actually leaves the press conference room where inane questions fly like overhit forehands, has covered Nadal since he was age 17 and uses source material that stretches back 20 years, including clipped and raised-eyebrow interviews with the red-dirt man himself, as well as with Uncle Tony and his rivals (Federer, Djokovic and some of those other guys on tour…). Is it really that groundbreaking? Not to tennis followers — Nadal might be a bit tired of the overexposure himself. Is it a fast, fun and quick read as clay season pile drives into our television sets, however. Most definitely. Does it provide insight into the reasons every tennis coach everywhere wants to now teach that wrist-destroying, whipping Nadal forehand? No. Maybe in the paperback edition. And what is next for Clarey? The Conquerer: Djokovic and His Fiefdom of Fitness? Title up for grabs.
And Now to the Kissing City: Madrid Open Update…
Will villa y corte (Town and Court), aka Madrid, ever live down that cheek-grabbing women’s football kiss seen round the world? The one in which former president of the Spanish soccer federation, Luis Rubiales, took forward Jenni Hermoso, a lesbian, by the head and planted a big one on her lips against her will during the 2023 Women’s World Cup championship awards ceremony? What about his crotch-grabbing while standing near Spain's Queen Letizia and Princess Sofia after the semi-final? Not to mention, hmmm, 2023 Madrid birthday cake-gate, during which Carlos Alcaraz and Aryna Sabalenka received different tiers of birthday cakes? Or the midriff ball-girl uniforms? And the court-speech dis of Victoria Azarenka and her doubles partner, Beatriz Haddad-Maia, after the pair defeated Americans Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula in the same year’s doubles final? “I don’t know what century everyone was living in when they made that decision,” the refreshingly straight-talking Pegula said during her presser. “To be honest, it kind of spoke for itself….”
So far, so good for 2025, aside from a few logo mishaps and some massive and unexpected thrashings. The little holiday that Iga Swiatek (WTA No. 2) took earlier in the Spring didn’t really help much, as in Friday afternoon when the women’s top player received a 6-1, 6-1 thrashing from the steely, young Coco Gauff (WTA No. 3). On Saturday afternoon, Gauff, once just a really good 15-year-old prospect, will test her mettle against who else but Aryna Sabalenka (WTA No. 1)? However, stateswomen, Ukrainian survivor and veteran mother-on-tour, Elina Svitolina (WTA No. 17), came within 13 points of defeating Sabalenka, 6-3, 7-5.
With Jannik Sinner conveniently out of the way for a few more weeks, British No. 1 and the toast of England, Jack Draper (ATP No. 6), continues tearing up the acrylic and clay courts with a win over Italian No. 1, Lorenzo Musetti (ATP No. 11). After securing that win, Draper became the first English man to reach the Madrid Open final — and he celebrated with a full-throttle yell and several fist pumps (exuberance for an English citizen). On the other end of the final on Sunday, Draper faces Casper Ruud (ATP No. 15) who has been, thus far, doing “a slow, dumb show” for fans and sliding down the rankings. The bookies likely have Draper at incredible odds, but nice guy, heartthrob Rudd could still Norwegian in there and take the title.
Back to the Early Summer Reads
The Tennis Champion Who Escaped the Nazis: Liesl Herbst’s Journey, from Vienna to Wimbledon
By Felice Hardy, Ad Lib Publishers Ltd., (3 July 2023), paperback, 286 pages.
Talk about loving tennis — and tennis loving one back. Publishers and agents hate it when writers do niche books that won’t necessarily sell, but this meticulously researched gem of a book somehow flew under the radar in 2023, likely because these are love, not lucrative, projects. They receive practically zero marketing budgets. Nonetheless, author Felice Hardy’s love letter to her mother and grandmother makes no mention of GOATs (just some other farm animals), but gives readers a moving an account of her grandmother, Liesl Herbst’s, celebrity rise to Austrian National Tennis Champion in 1930, at the age of twenty-seven. However, when those damn Nazis arrived, Liesl, her husband David and their daughter Dorli settled in England following a terrifying escape from Vienna in 1939 that involved smuggler boats and an 18-mile crawl through the snowy mountains to Warsaw. In London, though initially stripped of their Austrian passports and rendered stateless, both Liesl and her daughter, Dorli, resumed tennis. and competed at Wimbledon — the only mother and daughter ever to have played doubles together at the famed club. Liesl’s grand-daughter (Dorli’s daughter), Hardy, tells the story, making it as much a search for her own identity, as for her own children and grandchildren to ensure that their remarkable family history is never lost again.
Lucky Loser: Adventures in Tennis and Comedy
By Michael Kosta, Harper Influence (11 March 2025), hardcover, 304 pages.
Which tennis lover hasn’t seen the Daily Show’s Michael Kosta’s hilarious piece on the turf wars between tennis and pickleball, in which Kosta recruits former pro and sports commentator, Patrick McEnroe, to pundit an epic pickleball showdown between Kosta and Ronny Chieng and The Pickleball Twins? You’re welcome. Reminding everyone in the episode, that Kosta was once a professional tennis "star," the lofty heights of the ATP as the No. 864 ranked men's singles player in the world (and that it’s better than your world ranking) — in Lucky Loser, he tells the true tales of life as a jobbing tennis pro, travelling across the globe, competing in such exotic locales as the backwaters of the Netherlands, Tokyo, and even rural Illinois. He teaches tennis lessons such as how to properly discard an unwanted European hard-boiled egg, giving CPR to your dead grandpa, cringe-worthy "sex" in the Red Light District, crying so hard in a car that strangers call the cops. But there is happy stuff in there, as well, such as that warm fuzzy when dreams come true — and how, unlike in comedy, no one in tennis puts a gun on the table as they count out your earnings in twenty-dollar bills at the end of the night.
Ace, Marvel, Spy: A (Historical) Novel of Alice Marble
By Jenni L Walsh, Harper Muse (13 February 2025), paperback, 336 pages.
(Reminder: this is a novel.)At the tender age of 17, Alice Marble had no formal tennis skills, but wicked strength that could likely compare to Aryna Sabalenka in today’s game. She also had Coco Gauff’s willingness to take that extra stroke to prove herself. With steadfast determination, Marble toured the world, impressing the tennis club dons and doyennes to eventually become one of the top-ranked players in the world. With the outbreak of war with Germany, however, Marble’s tennis career and life come to a screeching halt, and as she seeks to understand her new place in the world order, a telegram arrives from overseas with heartbreaking news. Then another one from the U.S. Army lands on her doorstep: under the guise of playing in international tennis exhibition games in neutral Switzerland, send back information. In other words, become a spy for the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the U.S. precursor of the CIA, except Marble agrees to a challenge far more difficult than anything she ever faced on court. Author Walsh worked for a decade as an award-winning advertising copywriter before becoming an author with a passion for transporting readers to another world and time.
The Racket: On Tour with Tennis’s Golden Generation — and the other 99%
By Conor Niland (Winner of the 2024 William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award), Sandycove (6 Jun. 2024), hardcover, 320 pages.
Brits may like this supposedly darkly comic tome by Niland, now a well-known and regarded coach in the UK and Ireland, but Americans may pick up on notes of sour grapes. For sure, however, Niland knows his “Ciaos, bonjours and hellos when the greats of the ATP walk into the locker room,” and he has had the “exquisitely terrible” experience of suffering food poisoning on the court’s biggest stage facing down Novak Djokovic. But mostly, The Racket tells the tales of the ITF Future and ATP Challenger circuits where pro tennis’s pinch hitters roam the globe week-in and week-out, trying to get their numbers up in hope of making it to the bigger dances. The Racket also covers the widening gap between a few dozen super-rich players — travelling with coaches and physios — and the lonely touring pros whose earnings hardly cover their expenses. With word strokes and flourishes that paint a vivid picture of the social dynamics on tour, the economics of the game, and the growing underworld of gambling and doping, The Racket at least gives interested parties a unique look into the minor leagues of tennis. Did someone also mention it won the 2024 winner of sports gambling parlor, William Hill’s Book of the Year Award?
The Tennis Court: A Journey to Discover the World’s Greatest Tennis Courts
By Nick Pachell, Artisan (12 Sept. 2024), hardcover, 336 pages.
Who likes to see pretty tennis courts? Most people. Who likes to geek out on them? Serious players. Every one of the world's half a million tennis courts is an identical blank canvas: a 78-foot by 36-foot rectangle, divided by a 3-foot-high net in its centre, and marked with eleven straight lines. But depending on how or where it is installed, in addition to the accoutrements surrounding it (quirky statues, signs, trophy cases and all matter of magpie treasures like vintage racquets), a tennis court becomes a unique work of art. And some are masterpieces. Player and photographer Pachelli has shot thousands of these places, profiling 200 of the world's most beautiful, iconic, significant, alluring, and idiosyncratic tennis courts from across the globe (most according to the standards of the well-heeled), including Wimbledon's All England Lawn Tennis Club, Arthur Ashe, and Court Philippe-Chatrier at Roland-Garros, but also the Waiheke Tennis Club in New Zealand — only accessible by plane, ferries and automobiles — and the Tennis Club de Belgique, with its skylights illuminating the court and leaving the spectators in the shadows.
Courtship: For the Love of Tennis Hardcover
By Laura Bailey (Author), Mark Arrigo (Author), Rizzoli International Publications, hardcover (15 April 2025), 240 pages
Yet another photographic ode to the most beloved of racquet sports — for a tennis fan one is never enough. And the quest for a court and a game on the road is eternal. Bailey and Arrigo have documented a range of tennis courts, from iconic European showcourts to hidden gems in city and country settings, capturing the spirit and locale of each court and club in evocative photographs shot exclusively for this book, from the chic of the Riviera to the inner-city brutalist Barbican. While Bailey contributes an essay that depicts her life on the court, expressing the joy and the moments of enlightenment she has experienced through tennis, Arrigo helps along with the photographs a selection of quotes and short stories from heroes of the game, as well as curated photographs evoking the legends and lore of this most stylish of sports.
