[Wednesday, August 25, 2021 7:57 a.m.]
Book tip: A year on the court - 365 exciting stories from the world of tennis
"If you really love your sport, you have to study its history" . This quote from Roger Federer was probably Christian Albrecht Barschel's motivation to write tennis book "A year on the court - 365 exciting stories from the world of tennis" 288 pages peppered with interesting, funny and curious anecdotes and stories from the world of tennis over the last 50 years. Very entertainingly written. A book that will delight die-hard tennis fans. Because it reminds us of tennis matches that we watched at the time. Or simply makes us marvel and smile. I have embarked on an annual tennis journey for you and from now on I declare myself a “tennis nerd”.
One story per anniversary - all along the events of the "Annual Tennis Clock"
In the book there is a story for every single day of the year - usually about half a page, sometimes it can be a little longer. The individual stories always fit a monthly theme. Grouping the individual stories into monthly chapters, which are based on the traditional tennis events of a year, is a clever move by the author. In this way, the stories are also given thematic structure and order.
January deals with stories from Down Under, February with debuts and premieres, March with the bomb threat and fair play, April with comebacks and maximum penalties. In keeping with the start of the clay court season, May is dedicated to stories of clay court heroes and June is dedicated to Roland Garros. We continue in July to the next Grand Slam tournament and stories from Wimbledon. “Golden stories” from Olympia can be found in the August chapter. The tennis trip continues in September to “News York, New York”. The October stories are titled "Porsche Problem and Marriage" - a funny hodgepodge. There are world championship stories in the month of November, before December ends with the Davis Cup heroes.
Of course, there are many stories about our veteran stars Steffi Graf and Boris Becker as well as international tennis greats such as John McEnroe, Björn Borg, Rafa Nadal and Roger Federer. But stories about events such as the Grand Slam tournaments, the Olympics and many other tennis tournaments are also not missing, as are stories about our current tennis stars Alexander Zverev or Angelique Kerber.
Who is writing there? About the author
Christian Albrecht Barschel is a sports journalist and loves and lives tennis both professionally and privately. Christian has been an enthusiastic tennis player since childhood and even held the Guinness record for the longest singles and doubles in the world for a long time. Christian has been working as an editor at tennis magazine since 2017. Before that, he was an editor and portal manager at the tennis online platform tennisnet.com for years. It is therefore no surprise to the reader that Christian knows and has experienced many tennis anecdotes and curiosities, particularly from his professional work. His most recent book “ 100 exciting questions from the world of tennis” is also highly recommended.
Who is this book suitable for?
- For all die-hard tennis fans who have “actively” experienced the last decades of tennis with Steffi Graf, Boris Becker and the like in whole or in part
My very personal conclusion
"Yes, exactly - I remember that so well!" That's how I felt while reading the book. On many days of the year I felt “displaced in time”. Many days also brought me completely new insights into the history of tennis. In both cases, I really enjoyed the entertaining stories. The book can really be read in one go or in chunks. You can actually join at any time of the year - so you can always flip through and start reading. Since every day is a complete story, this is easily possible.
The author Christian once told me that the book was for “tennis nerds . I would see it that way too, because many of the names and events in the book won't mean too much, especially to today's young tennis players. And even if I have to call myself a tennis nerd: the book is simply great for people like me and certainly many of you too!
The most important information about the book
- ISBN-10: 3840377218
- 288 pages
- Published by Meyer & Meyer Verlag
- Price: 18.00 euros
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