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 7
... Matt gathered his arms around the chips, pulling them in and arranging them into neat little stacks. Still chuckling, I stood up to get some wings, but when I got to my feet, I began to wobble. Hoping that 2 BREAKING BACK.
... began to wobble. Hoping that nobody noticed, I surreptitiously placed my hands on the table to steady myself. It wasn't the beer. I hadn't even had a beer. It was the zoster, a virus that grabbed me back in July and hadn't let go. A ...
... began the warm-up—tennis has a gentlemanly tradition of preparing your opponent for competition by exchanging ground strokes and feeding each other volleys and overheads—I felt like a split personality. One side of me was having an out ...
... began to press, going for too much on my shots and getting im- patient. 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 ...
... too beautiful for words. Not long before I came home for Christmas, I was in Europe at the indoor tournaments that dominate the last months of the tennis season. Reflecting back on my year, I began to 26 BREAKING BACK.
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 |