The Racket

A s elegant and powerful as a Federer backhand … It’s Kitchen Confidential for tennis

A s elegant and powerful as a Federer backhand … It’s Kitchen Confidential for tennis

A brilliant, unvarnished look at a brutal sporting life.

An entertaining behind-the-scenes glimpse at life on the global tour

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.

A thoughtfully constructed memoir … plenty of self-deprecating humour, poignancy and insight to make this a page-turner

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

A crushing reminder of the grist from which sporting greatness emerges

One of the best Irish sports books of the last decade

A fascinating, self-deprecating insight into the life of a tennis professional who isn’t one of the prize-grabbing elite

A stone-cold classic. The story of Conor Niland’s life in professional tennis … recently became the third Irish book ever win the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award. And deservedly so.

Conor Niland grew up in Limerick, and was Ireland's top-ranked tennis player for much of his youth and all of his adult career. As a youth player he beat Roger Federer - and he still has his coach's notes on the match. His career peaked in 2011, when he reached the main draw of both Wimbledon and the US Open. He lives in Dublin with his wife and two children.