Five years have passed since I last published a book. This one, just out, “The Bud Collins History of Tennis,” is long overdue – and I know you’ll love it. If you can lift it. Just kidding. But I did need 765 pages to chronicle just about everything that has happened in the game since the initial tournament, Wimbledon, 1877, up to the present.
All the greats are represented in bios, and many others who have made historic marks. Such as the Australian bloke, Viv McGrath, who introduced the two-handed backhand during the 1930s. Or Anita Lizana, slightly known Chilean who entered the U.S. Championship once, 1937 – and won it. 0r Whitney Reed, who partied his was to U.S. No. 1 in 1961.
As well as the prose are the championship rolls of all the majors – naturally you want to know whom Francoise Durr and Jean Claude Barclay beat to win the 1973 French Open mixed doubles – and records and stats galore.
People often ask me how long it took to write such a book. I reply, “Fifty years.” A bit of an exaggeration. But I have been gathering tennis info as a journalist, print and TV – scribbler and babbler – since 1955, and have poured it into this volume.
I hope you”ll dig in.
[ed: order a copy of Bud’s book from the Books page]
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