Here is my review of “The Racket,” a book about life on the pro tennis tour. It is written by Conor Niland, a former pro, and is a riveting read for tennis nerds. He joined me on the podcast to talk about it.
Conor Niland is a former tennis player from Ireland who reached 129 in the world during a career with highlights and lowlights; all captured beautifully in his book, “The Racket.” You can get the book in most bookstores and audio, e-book, paperback, or hardcover on Amazon.
The book is not Conor Niland’s autobiography, but a mix of that and a deep insight into how it is to be a tennis pro starting from the junior days, into the College tennis world, then onto the Futures tour and later Challenger and ATP. But you also get to hear about Conor’s ups and downs, training with the Williams sisters, facing Novak Djokovic in a Grand Slam while battling food poisoning, winning his first Challenger title, but also about traveling on a budget, choking on the biggest and smallest stages in tennis and everything in between.
As a lifelong tennis nerd, this was a quick read and easy read for me. I am fascinated by the not-easy life that many aspiring professional tennis players undertake. It is romantic in a way; they bet almost everything on a sometimes distant and difficult dream of making it on the tour. Sure, if you have rich parents or sponsors from an early age, it is not quite as hard as for some who need to scramble for money to pay for hotels, flights, coaches, and stringers. I think few people outside the tennis world have any idea of how few pro tennis players actually make a decent living among the top 2000 players on the tour.
Overall, this is an excellent read for tennis fans and people with an average interest in sports. Deeply recommended!
A podcast with Conor Niland
I am happy that Conor agreed to sit down with me to talk about the book, what is going on in his life right now and talk about some ideas on how professional tennis can be arranged in a more financially sustainable way.
You can listen to the podcast in the embedded player below, but also on YouTube, Spotify, Apple and other audio platforms.
