Break Point! The Secret Diary of a Pro Tennis Player [Paperback]

Vince Spadea (Author), Dan Markowitz (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 11, 2006

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, Roger Federer, Martina Navratilova, and Jennifer Capriati. Spadea takes shots with John McEnroe at practice, raps with the Williams sisters over email, and trades barbs with Andre Agassi, who once called Spadea a "journeyman." Part memoir and part exposé, this equally comic and gripping trip through professional tennis reveals that the game may begin on the court, but it continues far outside the white lines.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"[I] 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 York City.

Product Details

• Paperback: 220 pages
• Publisher: ECW Press (July 11, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1550227297
• ISBN-13: 978-1550227291
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (42 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,077,091 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good read on pro tennis, August 4, 2006

By 

samprasland "samp" (st. louis, missouri) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Break Point! The Secret Diary of a Pro Tennis Player (Paperback)

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.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Spadea Tennis Diary, August 2, 2006

By 

D. Z. Sokol (Dayton, OH USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Break Point! The Secret Diary of a Pro Tennis Player (Paperback)

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.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Spadea serves up a lame game (pun intended), November 13, 2006

By 

Lisa D. Mooney (Charlotte, NC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Break Point! The Secret Diary of a Pro Tennis Player (Paperback)

Aw, Vince, promises promises. He promised to give us an insider's look at the glamorous world of jet setting professional tennis stars as well as an in depth look at what it takes to be a top player. He delivered a double fault. Break Point is more of a running head commentary of a man who comes off as borderline manic-depressive. He wins a few matches, loses more, he's lowerer than a snail, then he's full of hope with feathers that he can turn it all round with preserverence. We as readers get it, we as tennis fan sympathize but in Vince's books are sympathy wears then fast as we encounter the same grousing page after page with little if any real insight. This kind of narration dominates the book though, on a few occasions, Vince takes a look at his fellow players. He gets a little "catty" in regard to James Blake and he disses a few others but doesn't give much in the way of insider information to give us a true tell all (Micheal Mewhaw he's not). Heck, Spadea even admits quite a few times that he is not buddy buddy with any other players and rarely socializes with the other guys. When he does speak about attending a party here or there he makes a point of letting us know he doesn't stay long, and though he protests that he is not judgemental, he comes down rather hard on other players who are not as chaste in the area of romance as he is.
Spadea does talk alot about women in his book. He even gives us a hilarious, though not meant to be, analysis of how to sucessfully woe women. He is, however, a tease. Spadea talks of meeting up with "hot" women and even taking them back to his hotel, but he quickly begs off after a little making out and sends the women back where they come from. He is, in essence, a tease to these women who offer their sexual favors so willingly (at least he protrays them this way.
The book would be a total loss, not worth a single star, except that it does offer the reader a view of a tennis family and Spadea is his most honest and most empathetic in describing his relationship with his father.
It is too bad Vince spends more time on "rapping" and "whining" instead of giving us the human up close details we crave about the professional tennis players we admire from a distance.