The Racket

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What to expect

Brought to you by Penguin.

When Conor Niland was 16, he got the chance to hit with Serena Williams at Nick Bollettieri's famed tennis academy. Conor, the Irish junior number one, was feeling a bit homesick. Serena, also 16, already owned her own house beside the academy.

Conor Niland knows what it's like when Roger Federer walks into the dressing room ('Ciao, bonjour, hello!'), and he has had the exquisitely terrible experience of facing Novak Djokovic in the world's biggest tennis stadium - while suffering from food poisoning. But he never reached the very top.

The Racket is the story of pro tennis's 99%: the players who roam the globe in hope of climbing the rankings and squeaking into the Grand Slam tournaments. It brings us into a world where a few dozen super-rich players - travelling with coaches and physios - share a stage with lonely touring pros whose earnings barely cover their expenses. Painting a vivid picture of the social dynamics on tour, the economics of the game, and the shadows cast by gambling and doping, The Racket is a witty and revealing underdog's memoir and a unique look inside a fascinating hidden world.

©2024 Conor Niland (P)2024 Penguin Audio

Critics Review

As elegant and powerful as a Federer backhand u2026 Itu2019s Kitchen Confidential for tennis
Ed Caesar
A brilliant, unvarnished look at a brutal sporting life.
Sunday Times
An entertaining behind-the-scenes glimpse at life on the global tour
Telegraph Best 50 Books of the Year
Conor Niland may only have managed a career-high ranking of 129 u2013 only? that is some achievement in itself! u2013 but The Racket, his account of how he managed this, is up there with the best half-dozen books on tennis ever written.
Geoff Dyer
A thoughtfully constructed memoir u2026 plenty of self-deprecating humour, poignancy and insight to make this a page-turner
The Times
A visceral, melancholy and often self-lacerating book u2026 History is usually written by the winners, but this intelligent, unvarnished, emotionally draining memoir shows why an also-ranu2019s perspective can be just as valuable
Business Post
A crushing reminder of the grist from which sporting greatness emerges
The Economist
One of the best Irish sports books of the last decade
Irish Examiner
A fascinating, self-deprecating insight into the life of a tennis professional who isnu2019t one of the prize-grabbing elite
The Telegraph
A stone-cold classic. The story of Conor Nilandu2019s life in professional tennis u2026 recently became the third Irish book ever win the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award. And deservedly so.
Irish Times

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