The Education of a Tennis Player

Depicting the monumental achievements of a world-class athlete, this firsthand account documents Rod Laver’s historic 1969 Grand Slam sweep of all four major tennis titles. Coauthored with renowned tennis expert Bud Collins, this frank memoir details Laver’s childhood, early career, and his most important matches. Each chapter also contains a companion tennis lesson, providing tips on how players of all levels can improve their own game and sharing strategies that garnered unparalleled success on the courts. Fully updated on the 40th anniversary of the author’s most prominent triumph, this revised edition contains brand new content, including the story of Laver’s courageous recovery from a near-fatal stroke in 1998.

Rod Laver is the only tennis player in history to twice achieve a Grand Slam sweep of all four major titles—Wimbledon, U.S., French, and Australian championships—within a single calendar year. He has won 11 major singles titles and nearly 200 singles titles while also guiding Australia to five Davis Cup titles. He was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1981. He lives in Carlsbad, California. Bud Collins is a world-famous tennis journalist and historian, a longtime columnist for the Boston Globe, and a television broadcaster for CBS Sports, NBC Sports, ESPN, and the Tennis Channel. A 1994 inductee into the International Tennis Hall of Fame, he is the coauthor of The Education of a Tennis Player and Evonne! On the Move and the author of The Bud Collins History of Tennis and My Life with the Pros. He lives in Boston.