Book tip: A year on the court - 365 exciting stories from the world of tennis
Do you remember what you did on January 18th, 1991? And on July 6th, 2008? Or on December 29, 2001? If not, we have a tip for you!
by Florian Goosmann
last edit: Nov 02, 2020, 05:01 pm
Boris Becker, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer will remember these three days very well. Becker won a dramatic third-round match against Omar Camporese on January 18, 1991, after 5 hours and 11 minutes, in the glowing furnace in Melbourne. (And crowned himself number 1 in the world for the first time a few days later after defeating Ivan Lendl in the final.)
Rafael Nadal won what was perhaps the best tennis match of all time for the first time at Wimbledon on June 6, 2008, after five dramatic sets over Roger Federer. And he will somehow still have December 29, 2001 in his head: At the time, Federer played the first of three mixed matches at the Hopman Cup with his future wife Mirka Vavrinec - by the way, the two lost to Lleyton Hewitt and Alicia Molik (won the last game but they).
Christian Albrecht Barschel - long-time editor at tennisnet.com - has put together more legendary and crazy days in tennis history in his new book One Year on the Court - 365 exciting stories from the world of tennis .
Roger Federer gets to the point
"I wanted to immerse myself in the history of tennis, especially that of the German players. Roger Federer once said: 'If you really love your sport, you have to study its history so that you can understand how it became what we did know today. ' A fitting sentence from the maestro, "says Barschel of the idea for his book.
The nice thing: Barschel conveys tennis history effortlessly on 278 pages, packed in many anecdotes, memories of the stars and entertaining stories. When did Mansour Bahrami almost make Boris Becker desperate? Where did John McEnroe deliver his biggest freak ? And which German player ended Ivan Lendl's career? "The difficulty was that on many days a lot happened, especially at the Grand Slam tournaments, and then having to choose only one story ... On other days it was tricky to find a suitable and interesting story "said Barschel.
The main challenge was to verify the exact days of the events. "The dates of some events are contradicting", explains Barschel, tennis freak through and through and once listed in the Guinness Book of Records with the longest tennis singles and doubles in the world. "It was a lot of fun to get to the bottom of it."
A year on the court - 365 exciting stories from the world of tennis has been published by Meyer & Meyer Verlag and is available wherever there are books. The tennisnet tip: Hit it and immerse yourself in a year full of tennis!