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 8
... tournaments of the New Year. From there, we will continue to travel and play on and off for the better part of the next eleven months. Success in professional sports is a funny thing. You might say that pro athletes live with three ...
... tournament you find yourself in on any given week. But when you stack it up against most other “jobs,” life out on the tour is basically a dream, in more ways than one. It's a dream come true, because most of us grew up idolizing ...
... tournament I had won at that point, the Legg Mason Tennis Classic in Washington, DC, just over a year earlier, in August 2002, but I didn't focus on the final. Instead, I thought about my semifinal match, in which I found myself ...
... tournament victory is a milestone, a sign that you've arrived, that you're capable of being the last one standing come Sunday night. Once you've notched that first big win, who knows how many more might follow? As it turned out, none ...
... tournaments, seven of them, that went by in the blink of an eye because I traveled to some destination only to lose in the first round, pack my bags, and leave town, which is not a satisfying way to spend your time and money. In other ...
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 |