Break Point: The Secret Diary of a Pro Tennis Player

This book is a lot better than I expected. It is part diary of a single year (2005) on the tour and part biography. The writing style of Dan Markowitz is very lively and entertaining. And, what Spadea has to say about tennis is very insightful. Away from tennis, it is less so including his rapping lyrics and women chasing. Spadea offers a lot of insights and predictions about the game. And, five years later he is often right on. Early in the book, Spadea does suffer from delusion of reaching the top 10 while he is already over 30 years old. Spadea breaks up with his smartest coach, Pete Fischer, who had formerly developed and coached Sampras winning game. Spadea split because in early 2005, when Spadea earned his best ranking at 19th in the World, Fischer told him that this was the best he could do. And, he should train to consolidate his game at this level. Spadea did not like what he heard and decided to change coach. Similarly, Spadea gets upset when Cliff Drysdale, the former tennis player and now commentator, states he doubts Spadea will ever make it in the top ten. It turns out that Fischer and Drysdale were right as Spadea's ranking during the remainder of 2005 will quickly drop to 75. And, he will spend the remainder of his career near that level and nowhere near the top 20 ever again. He was already 31 and over the hill with no major weapons to successfully keep him near the top of the game much longer. In the appendix, you see his actual 2005 results. And, they are very descent. He beat James Blake twice when Blake ranked in the 70s. He also beat Robert Ginepri, Thomas Enquist, Ivan Llubicic, Juan Ignacio Chela. He had a good year for a 30 year old, but not good enough to remain in the top 20. Ultimately, Spadea does accept his fate. Spadea acknowledges the existential angst of falling in the rankings and having to play in qualifiers again. He is interestingly introspective, and those passages read well. Spadea reflects the challenges of athletes facing retirement. They are only in their thirties. All they know how to do is swing a racket. They have little education. Spadea did not go to college. Most of them have no transferable skills or marketable name. Spadea says that when he retires he wants to do something meaningful. He is now pretty much retired. He has not played an ATP match in 2010, and his activities consist in rapping?! But, what other choices does he have? The book offers quite a few interesting insights about pro tennis. One of them is... why do the pros always carefully select a ball before serving? It is because they look for the most used ball with the least fuzz that will travel through the air faster. This also explains why they change balls so often in pro tennis. It is not that the balls are that used after just 7 games; but, it is to stop the pros from picking the ball with the least fuzz. In essence, it resets the button when they change balls. This suggests that ser

Spadea slices and dices in new book By GREGORY STRONG USA's Vincent Spadea. (CP) - Vince Spadea may have just one singles title over his 13-year career on the ATP Tour, but his new book is a real winner. Break Point: The Secret Diary of a Pro Tennis Player is an interesting and often humourous look at the ups and downs of life on the circuit. Spadea describes his battles on the court, his triumphs and frustrations and how he has survived the sometimes gruelling lifestyle of a touring professional. But the real gems in the 297-page effort come in his blunt thoughts on everything from his opponents, coaches and problems with the game to his description of behind-the-scenes encounters with fans, women and players. Spadea touches on his start in the game as a junior and how he came up through the ranks, but most of the book focuses on his rather disappointing 2005 season. He also slices and dices, letting 'er rip early and often. He describes how motivated he became when fellow American Andre Agassi called him a "journeyman" years ago, adding the best thing that happened to Agassi's game seems to have been his divorce from actress Brooke Shields. He offers his two cents on some of the other top players in the game and isn't afraid to call it how he sees it. Spadea says Russia's Marat Safin is physically the best player in the world but is not mentally tough enough. As for world No. 1 Roger Federer? Spadea says he might be the heralded one right now, but has a volatile mental game, although he calls his forehand possibly the greatest single shot in tennis. World No. 2 Rafael Nadal also comes in the firing line. Spadea says the young Spaniard will never achieve what Federer will in the game, because he doesn't have nearly the skills, options and creativity of his Swiss rival. Spadea also goes back to how he called out captain Patrick McEnroe for his decision to give Mardy Fish the final playing position ahead of him in the 2004 Davis Cup final, where the Americans lost to Spain. Some might see it as bold talk from someone who's lone singles tournament victory came at a 2004 event in Scottsdale, Ariz. He briefly cracked the top 20 last year but has spent most of this season just trying to stay in the top 100. As for any feedback, Spadea says it has been minimal. "It's a book, it's something where the truth was told and everyone knows what the truth really is," Spadea said during an interview in Toronto. "You can't fight that." Even if there was negative feedback, it doesn't seem like it would bother him. Spadea sees himself as an outsider anyway, someone who bounces to his own beat. He's a unique character, a confident six-foot, 170-pounder with dark, curly hair, who walks with some swagger. There are third-person references galore - the book starts off with the line 'Welcome to outer Spadea' - he digs nice clothes but is also comfortable kickin' it in a pair of sweats and a jean jacket. And speaking of kickin' it, Spadea also profess

The way Spadea interweaves the story of his playing days with off-court forays into night clubs, airplanes and Starbucks reminds me of Bouton. What does a pro tennis player think about before a match? How does he approach playing against the big stars, Nadal, Blake, Agassi and Coria? Why do tennis players and models always hook up? How does Pete Fischer and Nick Bollettieri, two big coaching icons, tell Spadea how to play? Stories about Agassi, Sampras, Roddick and Blake give insight into these stars that I, as a tennis fan, had never gleaned. The book reads swiftly and makes me want to see how much more of a tennis life Spadea has as he plays into his thirties. You don't have to be a Spadea fan, or even know who he is, to really appreciate and enjoy this book, especially if you're a tennis fan.

What makes this book unique and interesting is that Spadea clearly had no agenda in writing it. It's not a PR piece for his career. In fact, he really tows the line and is definitely going to rattle some feathers of many players on the pro tour. But it's an honest, thoughtful look at what it's like to travel the pro tour and be that rare bird, a top-level professional tennis player. I particularly enjoyed his insights on Agassi and John McEnroe and his honest portrait of what it's really like to meet beautiful woman on the tour, even when they turn out to be, to his surprise, strippers who he decides he has no interest in. It's definitely a great read.

I agree whole-heartedely with SI.com's Jon Wertheim's assessment that "Break Point" is a compelling portrayal of a pro tennis player who exhibits, at times, startlingly delusional behavior. On the other hand, Spadea has gutted out a long career in a demanding workplace that usually spits guys out well before they reach their 30's. And his willingness to speak openly about the stars of today's game is a rare attribute. Markowits, his co-author, does a nice job of presenting the story in a coherent manner, not easy given that Spadea tends to rant subconsciously on a variety of subjects (although this is part of the beauty of Spadea as a subject)...an excellent read both for tennis aficianados and those wanting a peak inside the mind of a unique character.