The five essays contained in the cleverly titled “String Theory” bring together some of best tennis writing since John McPhee’s classic short work, “Levels of the Game,” about a single match at the 1968 US Open. Wallace’s essays include a study of Roger Federer’s transcendent shotmaking, the commercial drumbeat at the US Open, and a witty take on Tracy Austin’s memoir. Wallace was once a promising junior player who found his true calling as a writer. In 2012, his unfinished novel “The Pale King” (he committed suicide in 2008) was posthumously selected as a finalist for that year’s Pulitzer Prize in fiction.
Here’s an excerpt from String Theory:
“Going to a major ATP tournament is like a cross between going to a major-league ball game and going to the fair. You can buy a Grounds Pass and wander from match to match, sampling the fare. You can also buy specific expensive tickets for big-name matches in the Stadium and Grandstand. In the early rounds, these headline matches tend to feature the high seeds and household names – Agassi, Sampras, Chang – against main draw also-rans like Jacob Hlasek.
“Being a tennis spectator is different from being at a baseball game, though. Whether crowd-noise or -movement is any more distracting to someone getting ready to serve than it is to someone getting ready to shoot a free throw, players and tournaments act like it is, and play itself is supposed to be conducted in as close to funereal silence as possible.”
