Real Tennis

It's easy to get caught up in the belief that your tennis play will improve if you just spend more time on court or more money on lessons or equipment. And while those things might help, you can get better without doing any of them. The truth is that the best tennis player is not necessarily the one with the best strokes, or the most powerful serve, or the smartest on-court strategies. Rather, tennis is a game that often rewards the player who does just a few things, sometimes only one thing, better than his or her opponent. If you're an average, everyday player, a "real" tennis player, you...

From the author of Infinite Jest and Consider the Lobster: A collection of five brilliant essays on tennis, from the author's own experience as a junior player to his celebrated profile of Roger Federer at the peak of his powers. A "long-time rabid fan of tennis," and a regionally ranked tennis player in his youth, David Foster Wallace wrote about the game like no one else. On Tennis presents David Foster Wallace's five essays on the sport, published between 1990 and 2006, and hailed as some of the greatest and most innovative sports writing of our time.

The principal led a secret life. Someone rigged his lawn mower to explode, sending him on a one-way flight to eternity. As Bobby lies dying, he has plenty of time to think about all the people he has wronged and who might have put him at death's door. New evidence uncovered by his daughter Ellen, a top-selling real estate agent, proves Bobby's problem was much worse than she ever feared. Former police lieutenant Red Wilder, a Harley-riding PI, resumes investigation of the cold case, an old obsession that ruined his career and possibly his life, as he sinks more deeply into alcoholism. Past ...

Chi è il più grande campione sportivo di ogni epoca? In particolare, chi è il più grande tennista di tutti i tempi? Domande all'apparenza semplici alle quali però l'autore risponde con estrema chiarezza: Roger Federer. Perché? Ben lungi dall'essere una delle tante biografie del campione svizzero, l'autore stila una lista di requisiti oggettivi che dovrebbero appartenere al migliore di sempre: dallo stile alla tecnica, fino al comportamento dentro e fuori dal campo sportivo.