"If you truly love your sport, you must study its history ." This quote from Roger Federer was likely Christian Albrecht Barschel's motivation for writing the tennis book "A Year on the Court - 365 Exciting Stories from the World of Tennis ." 288 pages packed with interesting, funny, and curious anecdotes and stories from the tennis world of the last 50 years. Very entertainingly written. A book that will delight die-hard tennis fans. Because it brings back memories of tennis matches we followed back in the day. Or simply makes us marvel and smile. I embarked on this tennis year-long journey for you and officially declare myself a "tennis nerd."
The book contains a story for each day of the year – usually about half a page, though sometimes a little longer. Each story relates to a monthly theme. Grouping the stories into monthly chapters based on the traditional tennis events of the year is a clever move by the author. This approach also provides thematic structure and order to the stories.
January focuses on stories from Down Under, February on debuts and premieres, March on bomb threats and fair play, and April on comebacks and maximum penalties. Fittingly for the start of the clay court season, May is dedicated to stories of clay court heroes, and June to Roland Garros. July continues with the next Grand Slam tournament and stories from Wimbledon. "Golden tales" from the Olympics can be found in the August chapter. The tennis journey continues in September with "New York, New York." The October stories, under the title "Porsche Problem and Marriage," offer a humorous collection. World champion tales are featured in November, before December concludes with the Davis Cup heroes.
Many stories naturally revolve around our veteran stars Steffi Graf and Boris Becker, as well as international tennis greats like John McEnroe, Björn Borg, Rafa Nadal, and Roger Federer. But stories about events like the Grand Slam tournaments, the Olympics, and many other tennis tournaments are also included, as are stories about our current tennis stars Alexander Zverev and Angelique Kerber.
Christian Albrecht Barschel is a sports journalist who loves and lives tennis, both professionally and personally. A passionate tennis player since childhood, he even held the Guinness World Record for the longest singles and doubles matches in the world for a considerable period. Since 2017, Christian has worked as an editor at tennis magazine. Prior to that, he spent many years as an editor and portal manager at the online tennis platform tennisnet.com. Therefore, it's no surprise that Christian has experienced and knows many tennis anecdotes and curiosities, particularly from his professional work. His latest book, " 100 Exciting Questions from the World of Tennis," is also highly recommended.
"Yes, exactly – I remember that so well!" That's how I felt while reading the book. On many days of the year, I felt like I'd stepped back in time. Many days also brought me entirely new insights into tennis history. In both cases, I thoroughly enjoyed the entertaining stories. The book can easily be read in one sitting or in bite-sized chunks. You can actually start reading it any time of year – just flip through it and begin. Since each day is a self-contained story, that's perfectly possible.
The author, Christian, once told me that the book was for "tennis nerds ." I'd agree, because many of the names and events in the book won't mean much to today's young tennis players. And even if I now have to be called a tennis nerd myself, the book is simply fantastic for people like me, and I'm sure for many of you as well!
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