POETRY CORNER: High Strung, by Steve Tignor

Since there have been a few threads today involving some names from the "golden" era of tennis, I thought I'd mention the new book written about it:

High Strung: Bjorn Borg, John McEnroe, and the Untold Story of Tennis's Fiercest Rivalry, by Steve Tignor.


It was released on the 17th of May, and I've been going through it at a slower pace relishing chapter by chapter.

For those who are not old enough to remember that era or those who are young at heart and want to refresh those moments of high drama, this is the book!
It's written in a very drinkable style, not dry, not nerdy, quite a page-turner, in fact.

Steve has a lovely style of writing, he has a very poetic heart, very perceptive and mesmerising weave, and a great sense of humor, and he did really well for his first book.

I'll just mention the chapter titles to whet your appetites

The Angel and the Brat, Barbarans on the Lawns, The Next Victim, Lingering Death, The Dark Prince of Queens Exile on Park Avenue, Tearing the cover Off the Game, Taking Love on the Rise, Mr Nasty, The Lord of discipline, fallen Angel, Nobody Beats Vitas Gerulaitis, Ivan the Powerful, Heroes and Villains, Super Saturday, Requiem for an Assassin.

The book covers a lot of history in a very informative and interesting fashion, and there are several layers to it: historical transition from tennis being a hobby for the rich who won Wimbledons for earning the honour of the right to wear the club tie (have things actually changed here much since then anyway ) to the professional "paid" era of Rod Laver and his contemporaries .

Then you get the highly insightful, gripping detail and the plot that grabs you with the two main characters and their unique, fiery rivalry, then all the background of other legendary characters from that era: Nastase, Lendl, Connors...

Finally, you get the universal higher platform of life tennis brings out in all those characters: the true poetry: when things are highly strung, something's gotta snap

I think the book is available in the e-book format, but I prefer to smell paper and play with paper, so I bought the hardback copy on Amazon....

http://ebookstore.sony.com/ebook/stephen-tignor/high-strung/_/R-400000000000000371075

http://www.amazon.co.uk/High-Strung-McEnroe-Tenniss-ebook/dp/B004OVEZAW

If you are a tennis fan, this really is a treat you shouldn't miss , perfect way to kill two loooong weeks between now and Wimbers

Thanks NITB, I'm sold! Those were the first days of watching tennis I remember, and loved seeing all those great characters as well as players.
Love the titles for the players BTW, very inventive!

Have always loved that quote by Vitus G by the way, so funny and can imagine Roddick used that versus Federer. Vitus - the closest tennis came to having an international playboy in the top ten. Who would that be today...can only think Ferrer likes to party hard...

Sounds like a great read, thanks for bringing it to our attention

I linked this book to our thread today and there's already much interest. I like Steve Tignor as tennis journalist anyway - I just like his writing - but I follow someone's blog who did a resume on it. Interesting that they admitted they were 25 years old, so essentially, weren't around to experience these players themselves so to her, it literally did read like a book. She admitted to being in tears about the Vitus Gerulaitis passage. I'm sure those that were into those players at the time will love it, but its appeal will be to be everybody.

Whose blog?

This one. I like how she mixes tennis with fashion.

Interesting! I can see she's a Nadal fan....

Yeah tignor is a good writer and I will definetly check that book out it sounds really interesting. i love some of the titles "Dark prince of Queens". The funny thing about Mac is that usually when he got mad he would go on a tear and win like 10 of the next 11 points. Sometimes the outbursts hurt him like at RG in 1984, but usually he would go ballistic pump himself up, let out some steam, and completely frazzle his opponent.

Lydian that quote by Vitus was one of the funniest after he lost to Borg 12 times in a row and finally won, "Nobody, nobody beats Vitus Geralitus 13 times in a row."

lol...indeed Socal. What a sad loss Vitus was, such a colourful character

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGvgXpuSKaE

Never seen this before, but wooffies link and socal's point about Gerulaitis made me go for a look.

Two things about the video that should stand out, m00nb4lling was not an invention of Nadal, even in 1980, it was a chosen tactic on clay.

Borg's backhand, given that it is with a wooden racquet is very similar to Federer's and Gerulaitis's all round play looks like Murrays game ???

But the points on view, crikey, what athletes and the skill they possessed in those days eh?

Also, never knew Vitas played holding a tennis ball in his hand all the time (except maybe on his second serve)

"what athletes and the skill they possessed in those days eh?"


I know, it looks like today's warm up. Gerulaitis looks just like Murray the way he plays....