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recommended tennis related books

Below is a selection of highly recommended  books. If you love the game of tennis you will really appreciate these titles.

This page is updated regularly, so be sure to check back often...

 Recommended Book

 About the Author

 Overview
 

John Littleford and Andrew Magrath of Modern Tennis International,

Both MDs of MTI and are passionate about making tennis an easy game for the masses to play.

Between them they have over 45 years of experience at all levels of the game

This is a tennis coaching manual focusing on getting your grip and your positioning (feet, body, racquet, etc) right for each stroke. Part One looks at each of the strokes in turn, taking a step-by-step approach and using annotated multi-angle photography to demonstrate each one from five angles: front, back, left, right and above.

Each spread in this section also contains a short mantra for one of its key coaching points. Part Two outlines basic tactics and strategy for both singles and doubles matches.  
 

Andy Dowsett the foremost authority on Tennis Psychology in the UK.

Andy has presented around the World at many tennis seminars and is well respected by fellow tennis professionals and players.

  Whether you are a player, parent or coach, Andy Dowsetts Tennis Psychology Made Easy shows you how to improve your performance not only mentally but tactically raising your game above fellow students, club members and more importantly your opposition.
 

 Louis Cayer, International Tennis Federation (ITF) and world-renowned coach

Simply the best coach for doubles tactics and strategy in the World today!

  Be part of a winning team on the court! "Doubles Tennis Tactics" teaches you what positions and movements to use, and what shots to make using proven patterns of play. These patterns will increase consistency, put more pressure on opponents, and result in greater success in competitions. Developed in conjunction with the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and world-renowned coach Louis Cayer, "Doubles Tennis Tactics" presents 103 playing patterns and drills that are most effective in specific match situations. Court positioning and movement patterns are covered for all four players - server, server's partner, receiver, and receiver's partner - as well as court coverage and special formations for the serving and receiving teams. Practice drills reinforce the patterns so that smart tactical decisions become automatic on every point. In the "Doubles Tennis Tactics DVD", Cayer presents complete coverage of the most effective patterns and strategies for every critical aspect of the game: team strategy; serving; receiving; poaching; movement; and positioning.
 

Oscar Wegner the father of Modern Tennis.

"Oscar is a great coach. In a few days he helped me regain my strokes and my feel for the ball."-Bjorn Borg, 5 time Wimbledon Champion, 6 time French Open Champion."

  Just ask the dozens of world-class players who have made it to the top using Oscar Wegner’s groundbreaking approach. But if playing tennis isn’t so easy for you, if you never seem to play up to your potential, don’t blame yourself—blame the coach who taught you a lot of uselessly complex techniques. Play Better Tennis in 2 Hours is your guide to tennis as the pros play it—more intuitive, more fluid, and more fun. World-renowned tennis coach and ESPN commentator Oscar Wegner shows you how to focus your efforts on one thing—hitting the ball correctly. Your own natural athleticism will take care of everything else.
 

  Malcolm Gladwell has been a staff writer with The New Yorker magazine since 1996.

In 2005 he was named one of Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People.

He is the author of two books, The Tipping Point: How Little Things Make a Big Difference (2000) and Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking (2005), both of which were number one New York Times bestsellers

A brilliant new book from the bestselling author of The Tipping Point and Blink Why are people successful? For centuries, humankind has grappled with this question, searching for the secret to accomplishing great things. In this stunning new book, Malcolm Gladwell takes us on an invigorating intellectual journey to show us what makes an extreme overachiever. He reveals that we pay far too much attention to what successful people are like, and too little attention to where successful people are from: their culture, their family, and their generation. Gladwell examines how the careers of Bill Gates and the performance of world-class football players are alike; what top fighter pilots and The Beatles have in common; why so many top lawyers are Jewish; why Asians are good at maths; and why it is correct to say that the mathematician who solved Fermat's Theorem is not a genius. Just as he did in Blink, Gladwell overturns many of our conventional notions and creates an entirely new model for seeing the world. Brilliant and entertaining, this is a landmark work that will simultaneously delight and illuminate.
   Timothy Galway, In The Inner Game of Tennis, Tim Gallwey, a professional player and instructor who has produced dramatic results among the amateurs and pros he has trained, explores how to overcome mental obstacles, improve concentration and reduce anxiety for better performance at every level. There is no physical reason why any of us should not more consistently serve aces or hit perfect returns. The Inner Games approach makes all the difference.  The Inner Game of tennis is that which takes place in our mind, played against such elusive opponents as nervousness, self-doubt and lapses of concentration. It is a game played by our mind against its own bad habits. Replacing one pattern of behaviour with a new, more positive one is the purpose of the "Inner Game".

Peak performance at tennis, like any sport, only comes when our mind is so focused that it is still and at one with what our body is doing. The key to the "Inner Game" and better tennis is achieving this state of relaxed concentration so that we are playing "out of our mind" and therefore no worrying about how, when or where to hit the ball.
 

 Andre Agassi, The Autobiography,

is a former World No.1 professional American tennis player who won eight Grand Slam singles tournaments and an Olympic Gold medal in singles. Generally considered by critics and fellow players to be one of the greatest tennis players of all time, he has been called the best service returner in the history of tennis. Known for his unorthodox apparel and attitude, Agassi is often cited as one of the most charismatic players in the history of the game, and is credited for helping revive the popularity of tennis during the 1990s

 

  He is one of the most beloved athletes in history and one of the most gifted men ever to step onto a tennis court - but from early childhood Andre Agassi hated the game. Coaxed to swing a racket while still in the crib, forced to hit hundreds of balls a day while still in grade school, Agassi resented the constant pressure even as he drove himself to become a prodigy, an inner conflict that would define him. Now, in his beautiful, haunting autobiography, Agassi tells the story of a life framed by such conflicts. Agassi makes us feel his panic as an undersized seven-year-old in Las Vegas, practicing all day under the obsessive gaze of his violent father. We see him at thirteen, banished to a Florida tennis camp.
 

 Andy Murray, The Autobiography

The boy from Dunblane opens up about dealing with the constant limelight and attention from a media and a general public desperate for a genuine British tennis star, and gives the exclusive lowdown on Wimbledon 2008 as he prepares to launch his bid for grass-court glory. Temperamental, gifted, passionate, fiery: Murray is the dazzling new face of British tennis, and a role model to a whole generation. Andy's story will enthral and excite the entire country.

Henman Hill was renamed Murray Mound, and Henmania became Andymonium. In 2006, Murray went stellar. Aged just 18 he won his first ATP title at San Jose, California, beating former world no. 1s Andy Roddick and Lleyton Hewitt on the way. In the same month, he deposed Tim Henman to become the British No. 1. By the end of a wonderful year in which he was one of only two players to beat Roger Federer, Murray was no. 17 in the world. But Murray is much more than a truly gifted tennis player and potential grand slam champion. He has changed the face of the British game, blowing away the cobwebs of the All England Club, and dividing opinion with his brash, straight-talking style, anti-establishment rhetoric and on-court anger and passion. A whole new generation of kids are becoming tennis fans. Andy has made tennis cool again, like the days of McEnroe, Borg and Nastase. Here, for the first time, Andy Murray talks in his own words about the long, testing, and often difficult path to superstardom.

 
 

 Roger Federer,

Simply the best tennis player of all time!

 

  This is the biography of tennis superstar Roger Federer, the Swiss tennis player regarded as the greatest player in the history of the sport. The book provides an authoritative life storyline for Federer from the background of his parents, to Roger's early days as a temperamental junior tennis player, through his early beginnings in professional tennis to his lifting of the trophies of major tennis tournaments such as Wimbledon and the US Open. Readers will be intrigued with anecdotes from Roger's early years and in professional tennis and on what drives this champion to be great and his constant quest for perfection on the tennis court. The author, the highly-regarded Swiss reporter Rene Stauffer, has had many exclusive interviews over the last decade with Federer, the Federer family and many people Federer encountered and worked with through his journey to the top of the tennis world.
  Brad Gilbert, known as the Tour's 'Giant Killer' because of his ability to beat the superstars, is among the top fifteen players in all-time career winnings. He is an Olympic medallist and has represented the United States in Davis Cup play. Steve Jamison is a writer, television producer and host. He's been called the best in the world at the mental game of tennis. Brad Gilbert's strokes may not be pretty, but looks aren't everything. He has beaten the Tour's biggest names - all by playing his ugly game. Now in Winning Ugly Gilbert teaches recreational players how to win more often without necessarily even changing their strokes. The key to success, he says, is to become a better thinking player - to recognize, analyze and capitalize. That means outthinking your opponents before, during and much after a match; forcing him or her to play your game. Winning Ugly is an invaluable combat manual for the court, and its tips include some real gems. Ultimately, Winning Ugly will help you beat players who have been beating you.