Breaking Back: How I Lost Everything and Won Back My LifeHarper Collins, 2007 M07 5 - 288 pages In 2004, James Blake's life was getting more perfect by the day. A rising tennis star, with each passing year his game seemed to improve. In 2002, he was named Sexiest Male Athlete by People, and along the way he continued to gain in the rankings and earn respect on the court. Each day seemed to offer a new milestone, a new achievement; he was leading a charmed life and loving every minute of the ride. But that life came to an abrupt halt in May 2004 when Blake broke his back in a freak accident on the court. A few months later, as Blake was recovering from his injury, he suffered another tremendous setback when his father–the man who had raised him and provided the inspiration for his tennis career–lost his battle with stomach cancer. Shortly after his father's death, Blake's situation was further complicated when he contracted Zoster, a rare virus that paralyzed half of his face and threatened to end his already jeopardized tennis career. Breaking Back tells the story of the tumultous year that followed these three devastating events, detailing how Blake persevered through hardship to become one of the best tennis players in the world. Here Blake explains how the wisdom and words that his father imparted to him over the years gave him the ability to succeed in the face of these seemingly insurmountable odds. Though these trials proved the most difficult of his life, ultimately this trifecta of tragedy became the culmination of all his father's lessons, showing Blake that even in death, his father was still teaching him how to be a man. In the spirit of Lance Armstrong's It's Not About the Bike and Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking comes this remarkable tale of strength and determination from one of tennis's biggest stars. A story of passion, willpower, and the unbreakable bonds between a father and a son, Breaking Back is one athlete's account of finding hope in the bleakest of times. |
From inside the book
... for my graduation photo in the spring of 2001. But something funny happened in my sophomore year that took me by surprise: I became the number one college tennis player in the country. It was a hard fact to 11 THE STATEMENT.
... hard fact to ignore and it got me, and those around me, thinking that I might have the goods to go pro. While I tried not to dwell on the idea too much, it was a hard question to keep in the back of my mind, and in the end, the ...
... Hard- fought victories pump it up a little faster, as do triumphs over top players. By the same token, inexplicable losses, or going down to the unknown and the unheralded, can cause confidence to plummet. The blank month of December ...
... hard courts . In addi- tion , he was only one spot higher than I was in the rankings , number twenty - four to my twenty - five . In other words , on paper , I was just as likely to win the match as he was . What made that match even ...
... hard way . I had begun to develop a reputation : a lot of fans , sports- casters , and journalists thought I had talent , but the prevailing feeling was that I didn't want to win badly enough . People opined that when the chips stacked ...
Contents
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 |
Fire It Up One Time Bam | 203 |
Getting Better | 241 |