Neil Harman

This book by The Times's tennis correspondent covers the tennis year of 2012, the year in which Andy Murray reached his first Wimbledon final, losing to Roger Federer, before triumphantly taking the Olympic gold and winning the US Open, his first grand slam win. It contains a lot about tennis politics and administration, sponsorship and endorsement, which I found rather dull, though it is an inevitable part of any major sport. I found the book less engrossing than I thought it might, and I think the problem is that (no offence intended to the author) a journalistic style is clearly much more suited to short written pieces, rather than full length books. The book just feels rather insubstantial overall. Perhaps I'm being a bit unrealistic and unfair - I learnt a fair few things, though I got the impression the author is a bit controversial with some people in the tennis world, so there may be alternative interpretations of some of the things he describes.… (mais)