The Racket

"If it's not a contender for Sports Book of the Year, the world has gone mad. -- Fionn Davenport * Off the Ball * A brilliant, unvarnished look at a brutal sporting life. -- Michael Foley * The Sunday Times * The Racket is as elegant and powerful as a Federer backhand – a rich, mordant, affecting portrait of the occasional triumphs and frequent indignities of the low-ranked professional tennis player. I really loved it. It’s Kitchen Confidential for tennis -- Ed Caesar His funny, sometimes painful, memoir, is a brilliant insider's look at the brutally competitive world of tennis as well as a meditation on moments missed by inches. * Sunday Independent * A crushing reminder of the grist from which sporting greatness emerges * The Economist * A brutally honest assessment of his career and the effort it took to take him to the margins of the world’s elite. -- Tom Lyons * The Currency * An excellent book -- Denis Hurley * Irish Farmers Journal * A visceral, melancholy and often self-lacerating book … History is usually written by the winners, but this intelligent, unvarnished, emotionally draining memoir shows why an also-ran’s perspective can be just as valuable -- Andrew Lynch * Business Post * A searingly honest account of the real world of tennis * Irish Country Living * The Racket is as elegant and powerful as a Federer backhand – a rich, mordant, affecting portrait of the occasional triumphs and frequent indignities of the low-ranked professional tennis player. I really loved it. It’s Kitchen Confidential for tennis. -- Ed Caesar Conor Niland may only have managed a career-high ranking of 129 – only? that is some achievement in itself! – but The Racket, his account of how he managed this, is up there with the best half-dozen books on tennis ever written. -- Geoff Dyer A really wonderful read ... Conor Niland has delivered an all-timer for tennis and sports journalism -- Ashlee Vance Genuinely such a brilliant book, a brilliant read -- Ciarán Murphy * Second Captains * I ate this book up ... reveals the sacrifices, commitment and decidedly unglamorous side of life on the tennis circuit -- Sinéad Moriarty Well worth a read if you want the inside track on life on the lower rungs of the tennis circuit. Warts and all. -- Judy Murray Unsparing in his depiction of the drudgery of tennis -- Mike Jakeman * The Spectator * One of the best Irish sports books of the last decade -- Kieran Shannon * Irish Examiner * Compelling * Tennis365.com * Brilliant book, I inhaled it -- Jonathan Drennan * Sydney Morning Herald * This is terrific - devoured it in a day. If you want to understand life on the tennis tour at the level where you're your own manager, agent, coach, travel agent, physio, and trainer, this is the one. I've read many tennis autobiographies: this is one of the very best -- Charles Arthur Thoroughly enjoying this engrossing read; sure to become a must read of the tennis literature canon -- Paul Perry Witty and insightful … an homage to the game he clearly still loves -- Anna Carey * Irish Times * Blending a passion for his chosen sport with a realistic study of the traumas of the tour, The Racket offers a brilliant insight from Ireland’s greatest ever tennis player. -- John Boyne This will rightly join the list of The Best Irish Sports Books Ever Written. A superb insight into professional tennis from the ground up. -- Paul Howard An honest and droll memoir from the top-ranked Irish male player of the Open Era to have spent his career ""reliant on Tennis Ireland"" -- Laura Slattery * Irish Times *"