One of the things serious players love most about tennis is that it rewards thinking as much as it does hitting, which may explain why the sport has inspired some of the most compelling and lyrical writing ever put on the page.
Here are 7 essential reads to improve your game—and your life—from strategy classics to personal stories, and juicy novels…
How To
Winning Ugly: Brad Gilbert’s indispensable guide to maximizing your strengths while exploiting your opponent’s weaknesses draws on lessons learned from his professional career. Fun fact: Gilbert taught Zendaya to play tennis for her role in Challengers.
The Inner Game of Tennis: Famously one of Bill Gates’ favorite books, the Inner Game is ostensibly about achieving peak athletic performance, but author W. Timothy Gallwey’s advice and techniques for quieting your inner critic and achieving relaxed concentration apply to every aspect of life.
Memoir & Essays
Late To The Ball: This entertaining memoir details a former New Yorker and New York Times journalist’s attempt—aged 60—to become a seriously good (amateur) tennis player.
Open: Andre Agassi's excellent memoir about growing up as a tennis prodigy and his difficult and ambivalent feelings about everything from tennis, his marriage to Brooke Shields, and life beyond center court.
String Theory: David Foster Wallace’s collected essays on tennis, a game he played competitively as a junior, including his 2006 homage to the beauty and grace of an all-time-great, “Roger Federer as Religious Experience.”
Fiction
Apples Never Fall: Liane Moriarty’s thriller/family saga featuring the Delaneys, who have just retired as owners of a successful tennis club and coaching program. What happened to Joy Delaney, and did her husband, Stan, or one of her four children have something to do with it?
Forty Love: A Novel: A rom-com that’s right up the midlife tennis lover’s alley: Jules has lived next door to the local tennis club for years without picking up a racket. Facing the anxiety of an empty nest, she decides to stop playing it safe and joins the local team, leading to passion—both on court and off!
