Book info

• Title The Racket
• Author Conor Niland
• Year 2024
• Genre Memoir

When Conor Niland was 16, he was chosen to hit with Serena Williams at Nick Bollettieri's famed tennis academy. Conor, the Irish junior number one, was feeling a bit homesick. Serena, also 16, already owned her own house beside the academy. Conor Niland knows what it's like when Roger Federer walks into the dressing room ('Ciao, bonjour, hello!'), and he has had the exquisitely terrible experience of facing Novak Djokovic in the world's biggest tennis stadium - while suffering from food poisoning. But he never reached the very top. The Racket is the story of pro tennis's 99%: the players who roam the globe in hope of climbing the rankings and squeaking into the Grand Slam tournaments. It brings us into a world where a few dozen super-rich players - travelling with coaches and physios - share a stage with lonely touring pros whose earnings barely cover their expenses. Painting a vivid picture of the social dynamics on tour, the economics of the game, and the shadows cast by gambling and doping, The Racket is a witty and revealing underdog's memoir and a unique look inside a fascinating hidden world.

Thoughts

This was a really interesting memoir, detailing the life and times of a tennis player who doesn’t reach the heady heights of the superstar names you know and love, but puts in a real graft every day nevertheless. It’s always fascinating, if slightly uncomfortable, to think about that huge divide between the top players that can afford the help and support they need, versus the rather larger rest of the field who need to manage everything themselves, doing it on rather less prize money. This is a good, honest, revealing memoir, that is perhaps not surprising but does at least raise the subject once again.

Rating: 4 / 5