Life on the Tennis Highway

Berry (Tough Draw), a child star of the sport during the 1970s, shows himself a subtle observer of tennis and its participants as he analyzes key games and looks into the personalities of the players. He concentrates on two athletes, Ania Bleszynski, the daughter of Polish immigrant parents, both physicists, and herself a brilliant student as well as a fine performer on the court; and Jonathan Stark, whose world ranking yo-yos from 1007th to 36th then to 73rd as his drive to win waxes and wanes. Berry interviews ex-stars like Fred Perry, 85, who tells what it was like to play Bill Tilden (Perry has since died), and Rod Laver, who talks of the time the Australians ruled the tennis world. Citing the case of Jennifer Capriati, a millionaire at 13 from her earnings and a has-been at 18, he blasts parents who take their children out of school, leaving them uneducated. This perceptive study verifies an observation made by Stark's ex-coach Larry Stefanski: ""Tennis hurts."" (May)