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Reviews

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

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 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

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

As elegant and powerful as a Federer backhand … It’s Kitchen Confidential for tennis -- Ed Caesar A brilliant, unvarnished look at a brutal sporting life. -- Michael Foley * Sunday Times * If it's not a contender for Sports Book of the Year, the world has gone mad. -- Fionn Davenport * Off the Ball * A crushing reminder of the grist from which sporting greatness emerges * The Economist * 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 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 * 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 Genuinely such a brilliant book, a brilliant read -- Ciarán Murphy * Second Captains * One of the best Irish sports books of the last decade -- Kieran Shannon * Irish Examiner * 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

As elegant and powerful as a Federer backhand … It’s Kitchen Confidential for tennis -- Ed Caesar A brilliant, unvarnished look at a brutal sporting life. -- Michael Foley * Sunday Times * An entertaining behind-the-scenes glimpse at life on the global tour * Telegraph Best 50 Books of the Year * 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 thoughtfully constructed memoir … plenty of self-deprecating humour, poignancy and insight to make this a page-turner * The Times * 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 crushing reminder of the grist from which sporting greatness emerges * The Economist * One of the best Irish sports books of the last decade -- Kieran Shannon * Irish Examiner * A fascinating, self-deprecating insight into the life of a tennis professional who isn’t one of the prize-grabbing elite * The Telegraph * 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. -- Malachy Clerkin * Irish Times *

Author Information

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.

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