Breaking Back: How I Lost Everything and Won Back My LifeHarper Collins, 2009 M03 17 - 288 pages James Blake's life was getting better every day. A rising tennis star and People magazine's Sexiest Male Athlete of 2002, he was leading a charmed life and loving every minute of it. But all that ended in May 2004, when Blake fractured his neck in an on-court freak accident. As he recovered, his father—who had been the inspiration for his tennis career—lost his battle with stomach cancer. Shortly after his father's death, Blake was dealt a third blow when he contracted zoster, a rare virus that paralyzed half of his face and threatened to end his already jeopardized career. In Breaking Back, Blake provides a remarkable account of how he came back from this terrible heartbreak and self-doubt to become one of the top tennis players in the world. A story of strength, passion, courage, and the unbreakable bonds between a father and son, Breaking Back is a celebration of one extraordinary athlete's indomitable spirit and his inspiring ability to find hope in the bleakest of times. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 6
... stay on my feet. That unsteadiness wasn't just normal for me at that time; it was how I lived every minute of the day during that summer and fall. If I had a normal job, I probably would have been back to work by then. But I didn't have ...
... staying fit and honing your game are hard work, and if you do them right, they consume several hours a day. In addition, there are the other commitments—interviews, photo shoots, personal appearances, and promoting whatever tournament ...
... staying in school and now here I was about to play one of the icons of the game. As we began the warm-up—tennis has a gentlemanly tradition of preparing your opponent for competition by exchanging ground strokes and feeding each other ...
... stayed my home. From the time I left for college in 1997, I've always come back to Fairfield at Christmastime. It has a sort of Anytown, USA, feel—there's a train station and a main street (the Boston Post Road), and in the spring and ...
... stayed behind, in part, because he said he had to have a routine hernia operation. But my mother hadn't been able to reach him by phone or e-mail in several days, and she was beginning to think he was actually in the grip of something ...
Contents
1 | |
7 | |
It Could Be Worse | 35 |
Requiem for a Superman | 63 |
Five Minutes of Hitting | 115 |
Plan B | 147 |
If You Can Win One Set | 175 |
You Can Win Two 175 7 Fire It Up One Time Bam 203 8 Getting Better 241 Epilogue 257 Glossary | 265 |