num_pages: 224
description: In the 2008 Wimbledon mens final Centre Court was a stage set worthy of Shakespearean drama. Five-time champion Roger Federer was on track to take his rightful place as the most dominant player in the history of the game. He just needed to cling to his trajectory. So in the last few moments of daylight Centre Court witnessed a coronation. Only it wasnt a crowning for the Swiss heir apparent but for a swashbuckling Spaniard. Twenty-two-year-old Rafael Nadal prevailed in five sets in what was according to the author essentially a four-hour forty-eight-minute infomercial for everything that is right about tennisa festival of skill accuracy grace strength speed endurance determination and sportsmanship. It was also the encapsulation of a fascinating rivalry hard fought and of historic proportions. In the tradition of John McPhees classic Levels of the Game Strokes of Genius deconstructs this defining moment in sport using that match as the backbone of a provocative thoughtful and entertaining look at the science art psychology technology strategy and personality that go into a single tennis match.With vivid intimate detail Wertheim re-creates this epic battle in a book that is both a study of the mechanics and art of the game and the portrait of a rivalry as dramatic as that of AliFrazier PalmerNicklaus and McEnroeBorg.
language: English
title: Strokes of Genius: Federer, Nadal, and the Greatest Match Ever Played
publisher: Mariner Books