Best Tennis

Agassi writes candidly about his early success and his uncomfortable relationship with fame, his marriage to Brooke Shields, his growing interest in philanthropy, and—described in haunting, point-by-point detail—the highs and lows of his celebrated career. In 1992, when he burst onto the world sports stage by winning the Grand Slam at Wimbledon, he looked like a deer in headlights. Agassi has hated tennis from early childhood, finding it extremely lonely out on the court. Mike Agassi, a former Golden Gloves fighter who never made it professionally, decided that his son would become a champion tennis player. In militaristic fashion, Mike pushed seven-year-old Andre to practice relentlessly until the young boy was exhausted and in pain. He also arranged for Andre, age 13, to attend a tennis camp where he was expected to pull weeds and clean toilets. Only when Andre met tennis star Steffi Graf (whom he eventually married) did things begin to change. Readers will definitely cheer when Andre finally makes peace with the game he once hated and learns to enjoy it. An unvarnished, at times inspiring story [told] in an arresting, muscular style. Open describes Agassi’s personal odyssey with brio and unvarnished candor. Countless athletes start charitable foundations, but frequently the organizations are just tax shelters or PR stunts. Open is a superb memoir, but it hardly closes the books on an extraordinary life.”— The Wall Street Journal. Bracingly devoid of triumphalist homily, Agassi’s is one of the most passionately anti-sports books ever written by a superstar athlete.”— The New York Times “Not your typical jock-autobio fare. This literate and absorbing book is, as the title baldly states, Agassi’s confessional, a wrenching chronicle of his lifelong search for identity and serenity, on and off the court.”— Los Angeles Times.

The Inner Game of Tennis is a revolutionary program for overcoming the self-doubt, nervousness, and lapses of concentration that can keep a player from winning. The new edition of this remarkable work--Billie Jean King called the original her tennis bible--refines Gallwey's theories on concentration, gamesmanship, breaking bad habits, learning to trust yourself on the court, and awareness. "No matter what a person's complaint when he has a lesson with me, I have found the most beneficial first step," he stressed, "is to encourage him to see and feel what he is doing--that is, to increase his awareness of what actually is ."

From Maria Sharapova, one of our fiercest female athletes, the captivating—. and candid—story of her rise from nowhere to tennis. stardom, and the unending fight to stay on top. Her success would last: she went on to hold the number-one WTA ranking multiple times, to win four more Grand Slam tournaments, and to become one of the highest-grossing female athletes in the world. Her story doesn’t begin with the 2004 Wimbledon championship, but years before, in a small Russian town, where as a five-year-old she played on drab neighborhood courts with precocious concentration. As Sharapova returns to the professional circuit, one thing is clear: the ambition to win that drove her from the public courts of Russia to the manicured lawns of Wimbledon has not diminished. This is the bildungsroman of a controversial champion, a portrait of the athlete as an uncommonly driven young woman . Sharapova’s a careful observer, and Unstoppable is full of astute psychological insights.” ―Julia Felsenthal, Vogue. "A fascinating and well-written (with the help of Vanity Fair journalist Rich Cohen) insight into her struggles, triumphs, obsession with Williams, Russian pessimism and the roots of that famous haughtiness." "The surprisingly compelling Unstoppable is at its best when recounting Sharapova’s fraught early life . “A determined journey from the bitter cold and desolation of Siberia to the warm (at times burning) glow of international superstardom . All the big matches are relived in a speedy, engaging way, and her prose exudes confidence as she describes her ability to dominate her peers on the tour and how she came to be considered one of the greatest female players of the game. Her writing becomes more vulnerable, frustrated, and interesting when she explores her struggles with Serena Williams." Sharapova’s eloquent self-awareness provides a rare glimpse into the disorienting push and pull of a famous athlete’s life." An impressive immigration tale, an inspiring coming-of-age narrative, and a host of useful advice on navigating celebrity culture. Born in Nyagan, Russia, Maria Sharapova moved to the United States when she was seven years old.

Two-time Olympian and sports writer and broadcaster Matthew Syed draws on the latest in neuroscience and psychology to uncover the secrets of our top athletes and introduces us to an extraordinary cast of characters, including the East German athlete who became a man, and her husband – and the three Hungarian sisters who are all chess grandmasters. He admits his argument owes a debt to Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers , but he aims to move one step beyond it, drawing on cognitive neuroscience research to explain how the body and mind are transformed by specialized practice. He takes on the myth of the child prodigy, emphasizing that Mozart, the Williams sisters, Tiger Woods, and Susan Polgar, the first female grandmaster, all had live-in coaches in the form of supportive parents who put them through a ton of early practice. In this insightful and entertaining book, Matthew Syed takes us a step deeper into the world of sports, showing us how much we can learn about our own behavior.” (Dan Ariely, New York Times bestselling author of Predictably Irrational). “A cutting edge dissection—and ultimate destruction—of the myth of innate talent in the pursuit of excellence.

Maria Toorpakai hails from Pakistan's violently oppressive northwest tribal region, where the idea of women playing sports is considered haram-un-Islamic -forbidden-and girls rarely leave their homes. A DIFFERENT KIND OF DAUGHTER tell of Maria's harrowing journey to play the sport she knew was her destiny, first living as a boy and roaming the violent back alleys of the frontier city of Peshawar, rising to become the number one female squash player in Pakistan. “Toorpakai’s story… is mesmerizing, rendered with emotional and lyrical intensity… and as much about the mysteries of individual human lives as a larger political justice.” — Maclean’s “Toorpakai’s appreciation of and respect for her father fill the memoir with enough love to balance the story’s most alarming horrors. As a child growing up in a highly conservative tribal area of Pakistan where girls' involvement in sport was forbidden by the local Islamic culture, Toorpakai trained and competed as a boy in Peshawar. Toorpakai is the sister of Ayesha Gulalai, who is a Member of the National Assembly representing Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf on a reserved seat for women.

Take your game to the next level with Championship Racquetball —the most comprehensive guide for mastering the skills, tactics, and strategies of today’s game. Renowned coach and hall of famer Fran Davis teams up with racquetball legend and top-ranked player Jason Mannino to share their expertise and secrets on every aspect of the sport—from mastering the skills to recognizing weaknesses and establishing the strategies that will dominate your opponent during match play. In Championship Racquetball , she and Jason Mannino share their winning approach to benefit all players." “Championship Racquetball is every racquetball player’s dream. Davis is a staff writer for Racquetball Magazine and serves as a commentator for IRT Network (www.IRTNetwork.com). 1 player in the world during 3 different seasons and ended 2003 as the International Racquetball Tour (IRT) Player of the Year. Mannino served on the International Racquetball Board for over 5 years and was instrumental in developing the governance for the International Racquetball Tour.