[Vince Spadea,Dan Markowitz]Break Point ! The Secret Diary of a Pro Tennis Player(pdf){Zzzzz}

Spanning 13 professional seasons, this colorful and personal account of one man's life on the grueling pro tennis circuit pulls no punches. As one of only two players over the age of 30 ranked in the top 20 players in the world, Vince Spadea offers an inside perspective on his life as a world-class athlete: 11-month seasons, 68 tournaments, five continents, four court surfaces, and countless hits and misses. Starting at age eight under the tutelage of his demanding father, he climbed the rankings, battling injury, coaching decisions, and snubs from both fans and players. His place in the glamorous and gritty world-class tennis scene gives him much dirt to dish, and all the big names are there--Andy Roddick,

Publisher: ECW Press (July 11, 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1550227297
ISBN-13: 978-1550227291

Editorial Reviews
Review
" could hardly put it down." —Sports Illustrated Online (SI.com)
About the Author
Vince Spadea is a professional tennis player who, at 31, was ranked at #19 worldwide. He lives in Boca Raton, Florida. Dan Markowitz is a journalist, sports writer, and the author of "John Starks," a biography of the former New York Knick. He lives in New

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

A good read on pro tennis
By samprasland on August 4, 2006
I read a lot about tennis and found this book to be one of the best I've read. It is not a book for the fan who wants to glean more about how to hit his forehand better or doesn't have a sense of humor. A lot of the material might be deemed questionable in tact, but if you approach it with the mindset that this is a single, 30-ish, pro tennis player who is writing about traveling the world with his racket to make his living, then Spadea's sometimes randy and outrageous voice is appealing. This is not a book by Arthur Ashe or Roger Federer, where image is carefully minded, the writing is unplugged and revealingly honest whether Spadea's talking about other players' games, the despair in seeing his ranking dropping, or losing a German model to James Blake at a player's party.I would recommend it for anyone who is intrigued by the pro tennis life, and wants to hear about it first-hand from a guy who's been out there almost as long as Agassi.

The Spadea Tennis Diary
By D. Z. Sokol on August 2, 2006
When I first heard of the book "Break Point", I thought it was going to be a "tell-all" story with a revealing, behind-the-scenes commentary on professional tennis (the Jose Conseco book on tennis). While he does have comments about many of the players such as Andy Roddick, Andre Agassi, James Blake, etc., there aren't any great revelations beyond a fan's general perception that can be gleaned from Tennis magazine.

The book is essentially a diary covering Spadea's experiences on the pro tour throughout 2005. It is organized in chronological format starting with Auckland, New Zealand in January and ending in Los Angeles in November. He spices up the stories with commentary about players, tennis groupies, and officials. I enjoyed reading the roughly 270 pages and finished the book over a weekend.

As a regular fan at some of the professional tennis events (ATP Cincinnati, US Open, etc.), I've seen Spadea's name and recognized him as an above average player. After reading the book, the general sense I have is that he is disappointed that he hasn't been better recognized as a professional tennis player.

While he does have a few idiosyncrasies (e.g., he's proficient at creating rap lyrics), I don't think he's as much of a flake as he wants people to believe. In many ways, he's a good Catholic boy that wanted to have greater fan recognition, but he doesn't have the mind set to be the Dennis Rodman of tennis.

He's an honorable guy that's played professional tennis for over twelve years. He's been very competitive throughout that time, but he's obviously disappointed that he's only been champion at one major tournament.

Postscript: After reading the book, it was quite interesting to see Spadea playing a match in Cincinnati ([...])... he conducted himself just as he described in his book.