Levels of the Game

In probably less time than the match took, you can relive the Men's Semi-final of the 1968 US Open. Interspersed with the play-by-play account is the backstory of Arthur Ashe and Clark Graebner. They grew up in very different environments but with a similar love of the game. Ashe's biography was most interesting to me. He was cerebral and curious, and yet knew how to keep himself focused when it mattered most. McPhee's writing is masterful, such that this book seems to put a lifetime into a short story.

In 1968, the U.S. Open Championship was first opened to amateur players. They weren't expected to do very well against the players on the pro tour, but both Arthur Ashe and Clark Graebner made it to the semifinals. This is the story of that game. McPhee starts right off with the first serve, moving cinematically for a close shot of several points, then backing out to focus on the perspective of someone in the player's box or watching the match on television, or maybe taking a panoramic shot of the background of one of the players and how they started playing tennis, and moving in again for a closeup of a game or two.

The book, published in 1969, is a little dated in the description of the "modern" game of tennis, and by comments made by show more some of the players, like "he plays like that because he's white" or "because he's black", or he has a "Latin temperament." McPhee was definitely at his best describing moments in the match: a tense point, a solid ace, and the reaction of players and fans. A worthwhile read that left a smile on my face in the end. show less

Miglior libro sul tennis mai scritto, dice Gianni Clerici. Come non concordare? Splendidamente scritto, legge a un tempo la bellezza del tennis e un preciso momento storico dell'America. Tutto ciò è riferito alla prima parte del libro, Livelli di gioco. Ma anche la seconda, sul "giardiniere di Wimbledon" è allo stesso livello. Parzialmente riuscito il saggio di Codignola inserito tra i due testi di McPhee.

This early John McPhee book works on many levels, as an account of a match between two young tennis stars, Arthur Ashe and Clark Graebner; as profiles of each man at the start of their careers; as an examination of race and sport in America at the end of the 1960s. I wish there were less tennis jargon in the accounts of the match between Ashe and Graebner but that's a quibble. I was surprised by how meaningful this book still is.

McPhee on tennis. To be fair, some of it reads exactly like the chatter of an informed television commentator, and it is mostly forgettable. But McPhee brings it together as a dual character study.

> Ashe and Graebner play tennis with an efficiency that is thought by some to diminish tennis itself. Modern power tennis—the so-called Big Game (overwhelming serves followed by savage attacks at the net)—has now had many years in which to evolve, and Ashe and Graebner are among the ultimate refinements of it in the United States.

> Graebner’s angry look seems to say that he believes it was Carole who served the double fault. She absorbs this, by grace and by agreement. “I tell him to look over at me when he gets mad, because I would show more rather have him get mad at me than at anyone else—or at himself,” … Ashe is thinking, “Graebner just looked at his wife.” And behind Arthur’s impassive face—behind the enigmatic glasses, the lifted chin, the first-mate-on-the-bridge look—there seems to be a smile. Progress against Graebner in any given match, many players believe, can be measured directly by the number of times Graebner has looked at his wife.

> After this game, new balls will be coming in—all the more reason for Ashe to try to break Graebner now. Tennis balls are used for nine games (warmup counts for two), and over that span they get fluffier and fluffier. When they are new and the nap is flat, wind resistance is minimal and they come through fast and heavy. Newies, or freshies, as the tennis players call them, are a considerable advantage to the server—something like a supply of bullets. show less

This is a short book about Arthur Ashe, Clark Graebner, and modern tennis as of 1968. It describes the semi-final match of the US Open that they played & uses that as a framework to tell their stories. It is well-written and interesting. It is certainly dated, both for tennis and for cultural mores and political thinking. It is very much current events reporting, of its time.