Greatest Tennis Matches of All Time [Hardcover]

Steve Flink is the best person to write a book recounting the greatest tennis matches of all time. He is extremely knowledgeable about the history of tennis, its matches, and its personalities. He is fair, insightful, and judicious in his research and writing, and his captivating writing style assists readers in experiencing his enthusiasm for the sport. Flink also recognizes the area of subjectivity that necessarily accompanies any discussion of the greatest matches, players, and strokes of all time, but he nevertheless always gives intelligent, solid reasons for his choices.

The book contains, fittingly, a foreword by Chris Evert, one of the greatest tennis players of all time and a good friend of Steve Flink. In it, she praises his knowledge of the game, his fairness, his dedication to the sport, and the legacy his book will leave by reminding people of the Greats of the past who shaped the game, carried it forward, and made it possible for the game to be what it is today.

The main part of the book consists of Flink's choices of the greatest tennis matches of all time. Specific criteria guided his selections. He chose matches that had temporal and geographical distribution; that is, he chose matches from 1920s-Present and matches from all over the world. In general, he selected matches that featured two Greats who were competing in a critical match that had historical significance - significance for each individual player, for the rivalry, and for tennis as a whole. In order to prevent any one player from dominating the discussion, Flink limited his match selection to two per player. So, for example, Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova appear twice (fittingly in tandem): the 1982 Australian Open final and the 1985 French Open final, and Roger Federer appears twice (2008 Wimbledon vs. Rafael Nadal, 2009 Wimbledon vs. Andy Roddick).

In his description of each match, Flink provides a prologue of sorts, giving substantial information about each player involved, their development as players, their career trajectories, and the state of the game up to that point. Then he describes the match itself. Perhaps the greatest strength of Flink's book when compared with other historical accounts of tennis is that he devotes serious attention to the mental side of the game and the various external and internal pressures that affected the players and established the aura (and even outcome) of the match. He provides details about the actual tennis of the match - the tactics of each player, the changes in pace and score, all the statistical 'stuff' people can read in an online newspaper article about the match. But his main concern is to make the match come alive, as though readers were there themselves and were able to pierce the minds and hearts of those competing so as to understand their feelings and experiences. Finally, Flink narrates the outcome of the match and delineates the significance the match had for each player, that particular rivalry, and for tennis in general. By doing so, Flink creates a comprehensive, logical, and interconnected history of tennis.

The final part of his book is perhaps the most controversial. At the end, Steve Flink ranks the 10 greatest male and female tennis players of all time. He also ranks the greatest strokes of all time: the greatest male and female first serves, second serves, forehands, backhands, forehand volleys, backhand volleys, lobs, passing shots, etc. Readers will find some of his choices for all these categories obvious, but other of his choices will prove to be a delightful surprise.

In only a couple places did I find factual errors. That is necessarily part of writing a book on history and it in no way diminishes the quality, integrity, and accuracy of the book. If tennis enthusiasts read this book with an open mind, they will be more informed people of the sport they love so much; and I hope that they, like me, will derive great pleasure - and even a little bit of nostalgia - perusing this book. Enjoy the journey; Steve Flink is a wonderful tour guide.

If you follow tennis, either as an interested observer or an engaged spectator, you will love this book. Flink has catalogued what he feels to be the top 31 matches in the history of the sport. The first one is Suzanne Lenglen vs. Helen Wills in 1926 and the last is Rafael Nadal vs. Novak Djovic in 2012. Given the more recent dynamic growth of the sport, the matches in the early years have shorter descriptions and are fewer in number. By the tenth one the timeframe is already at 1964 and it is less than one-fourth of the way through the book.
Each match is described using separate sections:
*) A prologue that establishes the context and background for the match, including relevant biographical information on the players.
*) A description of the match, including in-depth swing-by-swing explanations of the critical points in the match where the momentum seemed to shift.
*) Epilogue, an explanation of the consequences of the match, the toll it took on the players and what happened in their careers after the match.
I watched some of the matches that Flink describes on television and can remember the intensity and drama that seemed to be exuded from the screen. He captures that very well, this is a book that you will not want to put down in the middle of reading about one of the matches.

Factual/Scoreline Inaccuracy: Page 334 re:French Open '03 semi-final incorrect scoreline. Page 348 re:French Open '10. Page 457 re:WCT final '74 incorrect scoreline.