Bad News for McEnroe: Blood, Sweat, and Backhands with John, Jimmy, Ilie, Ivan, Bjorn, and Vitas - Hardcover

Scanlon, Bill; Long, Sonny; Long, Cathy

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312332807 ISBN 13: 9780312332808

Publisher: St. Martin's Press, 2004

Synopsis

In the golden age of tennis, when players were just learning how to become media personalities, men like McEnroe, Connors, Borg and Lendl ruled the court . Now in a tell-all memoir, former top 10 seeded tennis star and chief McEnroe rival, Bill Scanlon, presents an unfettered look at the good old days of tennis when some of the most colorful (and infamous) players in history went head-to-head and the game was changed forever.

Bad News For McEnroe is in part a revelation of the feud between McEnroe and the author that began when they were teenagers, but the essence of this book are the wonderful and surprising on- and off-the-court high jinks of such notable players as Vilas, Borg, McEnroe, Nastase and Connors, all of whom Scanlan played and knew intimately, from locker room fights to on-court breakdowns and blow-ups. A story that could not have come from anyone but a true insider, Scanlan's tale of life on the pro tennis circuit will shock and delight tennis fans everywhere.

About this title

About the Author:

As a top ten ranked tennis player in the 1980s, Bill Scanlon is the only professional ever to have achieved a Golden Set (not giving up a single point). Scanlon boasts wins over eight #1 ranked players. A US Open semifinalist and a Wimbledon and Australian Open quarterfinalist, Scanlon holds 11 career singles titles and 4 career doubles titles partnering with Martina Navratilova, Ivan Lendl, Vitas Gerulaitis, and Billy Martin. He lives in Los Angeles, California.

Sonny Long is a Journalism graduate of Auburn University with a Master's Degree in Communications from the University of Texas at Austin. He is an award-winning journalist and author of two previous books. Sonny Long lives in Atlanta, Texas.

Cathy Long, Sonny's younger sister, attended Arizona Western College, New Mexico State University, and received a BA in Liberal Arts from Empire State University. A Bill Scanlon fan and researcher extraordinaire, this was her first collaborative writing project.

From Booklist:

Scanlon was a top-10 tennis player in the 1980s and can claim victories over eight number-one-ranked players. His career encompassed tennis' golden age, when talented personalities took the game from back-page summaries to headline fare. The sport quickly became a big-money entertainment venue with intense press scrutiny, and charismatic bad boy McEnroe was always in the middle of it. Scanlon's title may have readers thinking the book is designed as a response to McEnroe's entertaining but self-serving You Cannot Be Serious (2002), but it's more than that. Jibes toward McEnroe may outnumber those directed at anyone else, but Scanlon's larger purpose is to offer an insider's view of the tennis explosion and the volatile, larger-than-life personalities who fueled it. He describes the increased public recognition, the ever-growing prize money, and the changes in equipment, training methods, court strategy, and coaching. Typically, the enduring appeal of the game itself outlasts the popularity of its stars, but Scanlon describes an era when a sport was eclipsed by its stars. Great reading for tennis fans. Wes Lukowsky
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About this edition

• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0312332807
• ISBN 13: 9780312332808
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 240