Breaking Back: How I Lost Everything and Won Back My LifeJames 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
To be fair, being among the top thirty or so players in the world is nothing to be
ashamed of, unless you're capable of doing better, and I knew I was capable of
doing better. My mind kept flashing back to the moments of great promise during
...
Next thing I knew it was all over. The last set was as much of a blur as my win
over Agassi, only it wasn't all my winners I couldn't remember; it was all my
unforced errors and squandered opportunities that came together into a highlight
reel ...
Going into 2003, I knew this rationally, but I didn't know it in my gut until I was at
the other end of the year, when I had learned it, over and over, the hard way. I
had begun to develop a reputation: a lot of fans, sportscasters, and journalists ...
... back didn't bother me too much. No, my personal abyss wasn't the prospect of
losing matches, or fading out of the top hundred, or being relegated to the outer
courts. It was not doing as well as I knew I could. It was the idea of beating myself.
We knew what she meant. A fiercely independent and strong-willed man, my
father, if he were sick, would have handled it the same way he handled the rest of
his life—with unwavering self-sufficiency. This would be especially true on the
eve ...
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User Review - sugarhill203 - Overstock.comI found the book interesting and easy to read due to the content and good writting. Being a tennis fan I found the book to show the reasons the commentators use very positive words describing James Blake. James his mother and brother are always shown respect when referring to them. Read full review
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 |
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Bibliographic information
| Title | Breaking Back: How I Lost Everything and Won Back My Life |
| Author | James Blake |
| Publisher | Harper Collins, 2009 |
| ISBN | 0061739650, 9780061739651 |
| Length | 288 pages |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |