High Strung by Stephen Tignor

High Strung by Stephen Tignor

For all the upsets, unexpected career turnarounds, and bizarre instances of violence tennis has produced, there have been few moments more stunning to fans than the one that occurred immediately after the men's final at the 1981 U.S. Open. Bjorn Borg, the stoical Swede who had been the game's most respected gentleman and resolute competitor for the better part of a decade, lost to his younger and brash rival John McEnroe and walked straight out of Louis Armstrong Stadium at Flushing Meadows, an unsightly breach in decorum. Borg's career had suddenly ended, and so had the era of tennis that he and the three other semifinalists at that year's Open-McEnroe, Jimmy Connors, and Vitas Gerulaitis-along with Ilie Nastase-defined. That period, which lasted roughly from 1971 to 1981, is now remembered as a golden one for the sport. As late as 1968, tennis was reserved for amateurs-gentlemen, in the original British parlance-as it had been since its invention a century earlier. But for the first time in 1968, tennis opened its Grand Slams to the professional rank, and the sport took its place among the world's big-money sports. Recreational participation boomed, while at the professional level a group of charismatic young players brought the sport to a new peak of international popularity. "High Strung" narrates a landmark year in the sport's history, the lives involved, and chronicles the broader innovations in the 1970s that spread to all of America's major sports and athletes: agents, merchandise deals, even the idea of signature shoes, all of them owe their existence to the personalities and professional conduct of this new set of players. Distinctly ungentlemanly, they took the game farther from its roots than its officials and fans thought possible, and would cause upheavals in the very equipment they held in their hands as racquets evolved and the game shifted from finesse to power. The 1981 U.S. Open was the metaphorical end of the earth for 1970s tennis, and "High Strung" explores the lives and careers of the four players who defined the era

"This is good stuff, and it's written with flairIn fact, it made me want even more. " -- The Oregonian "A book full of aces...Even for those who know the outcomes of the many matches he recounts, Tignor's descriptive prose and flair for dramatic writing make "High Strung" a true page-turner." -- Associated Press

Stephen Tignor is the Executive Editor of Tennis magazine. He writes a daily blog on Tennis.com, where he has written about the sport for the past twelve years.

SKU	Non disponible
ISBN 13	9780062009845
ISBN 10	0062009842
Titre	High Strung
Auteur	Stephen Tignor
État	Non disponible
Type de reliure	Hardback
Éditeur	HarperCollins Publishers Inc
Année de publication	2011-05-17
Nombre de pages	256
Note de couverture	La photo du livre est présentée à titre d'illustration uniquement. La reliure, la couverture ou l'édition réelle peuvent varier.
Note	Non disponible