Skip to footer

Wimbledon 2014: excerpts from 5 noteworthy books about tennis

As Wimbledon begins on June 23, check out these excerpts from five insider looks at the game of tennis.

2. 'Bollettieri: Changing the Game,' by Nick Bollettieri

  • By Ross Atkin Staff writer

(Nick Bollettieri has made his Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy in Bradenton, Fla., an incubator of champions. Among the players whose careers he's helped shape are Andre Agassi, Monica Seles, Serena Williams, and Maria Sharapova.)

"Sometimes, because of my many years of experience in tennis, I'm called on to consult and offer advice. In 2012, Stacey Allaster, the head of the WTA [Women's Tennis Association], asked me to come to the headquarters in St. Petersburg, Florida ... and share my thoughts in a discussion concerning a matter that has been highly controversial for years – the pervasive grunting and screaming during matches.

My answer was simple and based on what I thought was best for the sport. I never taught it to my female (or male) players, but I defended it because a number of my champions, notably Monica Seles, Maria Sharapova and Serena Williams, have made it part of their arsenals of weapons on the court. It can disturb, distract and intimidate opponents. In addition, it is now so much a part of their game, that to demand they stop would severely damage their ability to compete.

"If we wanted to get rid of the screaming, my suggestion was to phase it out gradually by starting with 10 or 12 year olds. Have the umpires announce before matches that they will issue a first warning and then start to deduct points. Do it consistently, across the board, and the 'problem' will soon go away."

(The Women's Tennis Association has plans to phase out loud grunting without forcing current stars to change their court habits.)

2 of 5
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.