Rod Laver

Bartlett, Michael and Bob Gillen, eds.
The Tennis book: a joyous cornucopia of the best that has been thought and written about the game, by and about the masters themselves, and the finest writers ever to have penned their devotion to it . . . .
New York: Arbor House, 1981.

Rod Laver’s essay recounts the 1969 Australian Open, his first step towards winning his second Grand Slam later that year.  This anthology of modern tennis writing also includes pieces by tennis greats such as Bill Tilden, Arthur Ashe, Bjorn Borg, and Billie Jean King.

The Account of an Arthur Ashe/Clark Graebner Match

McPhee, John A.
Levels of the game.
New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1969.
Gift of Harry Hootman, 2002.

McPhee, a longtime New Yorker contributor, writes of an Ashe/Graebner match at Forest Hills and uses the event to write parallel biographies of two professional tennis players with very different styles and backgrounds.

Bobby Riggs’s Autobiography

Riggs, Bobby, with George McGann.
Court hustler: an autobiography.
New York: J. P. Lippincott, 1973.

Riggs writes here about beating women’s champion Margaret Court in a May 1973 match and also boasts about his upcoming match with Billie Jean King in September.  Perhaps fortunately for Riggs, the book went to press before the results of that famous match could be recorded.

A Chris Evert Children’s Book

Burchard, S. H.
Sports star Chris Evert.
New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1976.

This biography for children appeared after Evert’s string of victories in the mid‑1970s, including winning Wimbledon and the French Open at age 20 in 1974.
 

Behind the Scenes at the Women’s Tennis Tour

Wertheim, L. John.
Venus envy: a sensational season inside the women’s tennis tour.
New York: HarperCollins, 2001.

An "inside" account of the 2000 women’s professional tennis season by a Sports Illustrated writer and tennis columnist.

 

The Williams Sisters on Tennis Etiquette

Williams, Venus, 1980‑ , and Serena Williams, 1981‑ .
How to play tennis: learn to play the Williams sisters’ way.
New York: DK Publishing, 2004.

In addition to teaching basic tennis skills, Venus and Serena Williams also include a section called "Winning Ways" that includes their thoughts on sportsmanship, lifetime fitness, and proper nutrition.  For an earlier but similar warning against tantrums on the court, compare Scaino's comments in the first section of this exhibit.