Strokes of Genius

I must give a shoutout to my favorite writer L. Jon Wertheim for his new book STROKES OF GENIUS: FEDERER, NADAL, AND THE GREATEST MATCH EVER PLAYED. Anybody that reads Wertheim's online mailbag column and his Tennis magazine stories will recognize some of the anecdotes and stories previously covered. It is fun to read them again as they are woven into this epic battle. Also the book is not only about Federer and Nadal you do get tidbits about Nole, Daydenko, even journeyman Marc Gicquel gets some ink on the dead trees.

While most of the insight into Federer comes from Federer himself, to get into Nadal's world it seems that the author went more through Nadal's camp. It almost seems that Nadal's uncle/coach Toni has more quotes than Rafa. If he dosen't have more they were definitely more memorable. You get the requisite backgrouds on both players and you also get plenty of detail about Wimbledon itself. L. Jon even touches upon the slow grass issue. As someone who has never been to Wimbledon the book gives me a feel for the place.

One Amazon fan critic says that Rafa is not featured enough in this book. I counter with two points:
1) Nadal was the challenger and would not have been as huge a story as Fed's "career meltdown" at the time.
2) Nadal's camp seems so close knit that what the author was able get he used eloquently.

The book officially drops on 6/4/09 but if you have connections like me (Borders) you can get it now. I recommend it as a great if not short read. Also not only do you get the tennis players, you also get the nutty fans, the celebrity hangers on, and even Venus Williams plays the waiting game in..... "Strokes of Genius"