Strokes of Genius: Federer, Nadal, and the Greatest Match Ever Played by L. Jon Wertheim

From Barnes & Noble

When Roger Federer arrived at the 2008 Wimbledon finals, 13 Grand Slam titles under his belt, tennis fans around the world knew that they were watching the most dominant player in the history of the game. Only one man, 22-year-old Rafael Nadal, stood in his way. What transpired, as Sports Illustrated senior writer L. Jon Wertheim deftly notes in this book, was a 4-hour, 48-minute demonstration of "skill, accuracy, grace, strength, speed, endurance, determination, and sportsmanship." Welcome to the Golden Age of Tennis, up close and personal.

From the Publisher

On July 6, 2008, two compelling athletes met on Wimbledon’s Centre Court in the men’s final and served up a seminal event in tennis. Roger Federer was on track to take his rightful place as the most dominant player in the history of the game. The Wimbledon champ for five years running, Federer needed only to sustain his trajectory. But in the fading daylight it was his rival, the swashbuckling Spaniard Rafael Nadal, who met the moment. Their captivating match was, according to the author, “essentially a four-hour forty-eight-minute infomercial for everything that is right about tennis—a festival of skill, accuracy, grace, strength, speed, endurance, determination, and sportsmanship.” It was also the encapsulation of a fascinating and textured rivalry, hard fought and of historic proportions.
The next year saw Roger Federer in another stunning final at Wimbledon against another opponent, Andy Roddick—but this time Federer came out on top. Once again, tennis fans returned to the debate concerning the “greatest match ever played.” As Strokes of Genius shows, the Federer-Nadal rivalry is one of the premier matchups in all of sports, and their epic battle at Wimbledon is not just one of the greatest tennis matches ever played, it is one of the greatest games of all time.

The New York Times - Mary Jo Murphy

What we most likely knew before opening the book was the title match itself, the gentlemen's final…at Wimbledon. We knew its likable protagonists, its trajectory, its feats, its outcome, its brilliance. If we didn't, chances are we wouldn't be reading about it. We wouldn't care about having the match replayed for us, stroke by magnificent stroke, on paper. But that is what Wertheim sets out to do, because singular sporting events sometimes require a written record, preferably an elegant one…Here is where you lay the flowers to mark the memory of awesome. Here is the tattoo that says Rafa-Roger Forever. In this sense the book undoubtedly delivers.

Howard Katz - Library Journal

Could there have been more on the line when No. 1 ranked Roger Federer attempted but oh-so-narrowly lost to arch nemesis Rafael Nadal in 2008 when he sought to capture a modern-day record sixth consecutive Wimbledon title? Sports Illustrated writer Wertheim provides a comprehensive and thoroughly engaging look back at the nearly five-hour epic center-court contest, excelling at the details that support his claim of "greatest match ever played." The decisive moments in the five-set marathon are expertly retold, and the match statistics box is a welcome addition. Wertheim's informative backstories behind the clash itself and the contrasting personalities of "delicate, brush-stroking impressionist" Federer and "dogged, free-wheeling abstract expressionist" Nadal should convince readers that this drama-filled and high-quality duel of tennis titans gives the historic 1980 Borg-McEnroe final a well-earned run for its money. Recommended for sports and general collections.

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