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Double Fault: My Rise and Fall, and My Road Back
A confessional story that reads like fiction, this is the true story of a famed tennis star who went from being ranked fourth in the world, dueling the sport’s greatest players to lying to police in several countries to avoid jail. Roscoe Tanner’s life is a complicated story that include years of one-night stands with groupies, a private fortune amassed and then lost, multiple failed marriages and relationships, business plans that fizzled, fleeing to Europe for a last chance, the pounding on the door by two German detectives that led to an involuntary stay in the Karlsruhe jail, and, ultimately, finding redemption. Double Fault is Tanner's story-arrests, cons, lies, and all in an attempt to share it with others to prove that when you hit bottom you can still pick yourself up, dust yourself off and keep moving forward.
- GenresBiography
256 pages, Hardcover
First published August 30, 2005
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April 5, 2021This has to be one of the worst examples of "non-fiction" I've ever encountered (given all the fiction herein). Fact checking this doozy is a nightmare. From the fallacies of his childhood to the backgrounds of the women he married or just dated (i.e. escort that was never an escort). Claiming others have a questionable past to throw blame around instead of owning up to your own choices is defamation of character (not to leave out childish). Biography? More likely a con job to make some money. Pass. Luckily for Tanner this book wasn't such a hot topic or it would have been a scandal of sexist proportions these days.
January 7, 2014
Just like most con artists, Tanner can tell an engaging story. This book presents a very likable guy who appears to own up to his mistakes and wants to make good to those he has left in his turbulent wake.
Unfortunately, Tanner's self-image doesn't jibe with reality. There are some early warning signs, but about two-thirds of the way through this book, the wheels fall off and you're left realizing that Tanner has now conned you into feeling some compassion for him, along with his numerous ex-business partners, ex-wives, judges, and his six daughters (four biological by three wives and one New Jersey-area escort).
The book starts with a bang as Tanner recounts his arrest and early days in a German jail. We then flash back through Tanner's early years and dominance on the tennis court for Stanford. If you read this book, keep in mind that this guy got a scholarship to go to Stanford and yet he somehow manages to continue to make astoundingly stupid decisions.
Eventually, Tanner gets around to recapping some of the high points of his career which include an unexpected phone call from Arthur Ashe asking him if he wants to play doubles with him on tour. This results in some nice anecdotes about Ashe during his playing days and the relationship the two shared. But the luster soon wears off when Tanner recounts his idea of the pinnacle of comedy by adhering to the Tour's rules that doubles players wear matching uniforms by slapping on an afro wig and walking out onto the court in blackface. And he doesn't express any regret or explain that it was an immature prank even with 30 years of hindsight behind him.
Tanner shares a few more anecdotes from his playing career, including his participation in the first "Breakfast at Wimbledon" in an epic match against Bjorn Borg, before spending the majority of the second half of the book on his broken marriages and subsequent legal troubles. One of my favorite anecdotes, that pretty neatly sums up Tanner's personality and modus operandi, involves his second wife and the drug-dealing/cocaine abusing habit she somehow managed to hide from him until after they were married when a junkie shows up on his door looking to buy. Tanner expresses shock and outrage(!) and confronts his wife when she gets home. She tells him she's only selling to pay the bills. After offering to buy it from her so that she won't have to sell anymore (I know, I had to read it twice too), he asks if she's ever used it. By golly, she has! And so begins two years of cocaine abuse that's entirely glossed over except for the fact that it was to blame for his poor financial decisions during that time.
As noted above, Tanner attempts to accept responsibility for his mistakes, but he routinely comes off like a spoiled ex-jock who can't believe that the world actually wants him to take responsibility for his actions. He repeatedly refers to being lumped in with the "common criminals" despite his only crime being writing one bad check for a yacht. Reality check Roscoe: you wrote a $35,000.00 check that you knew was bad for a yacht when you had outstanding child support obligations from your ex-wife and the "one-time" escort with whom you cheated. Even when Tanner attempts to be contrite and admit his philandering with the escort, he undermines his remorse when he refers to the "unwritten rules" of banging strange women while on the road.
Tanner's descriptions of his time in prison are full of all the worst TV-movie cliches. He believes he was saved by god from all of the awful prison rape that he just knows goes on even though he admits he never saw anything like that happen. And things take an interesting turn during his time in the pokey in Germany when Tanner claims that he felt a target on his back from the "Arab" inmates because they could be members of Al Qaeda and America was currently at war in Afghanistan.
Finally, Tanner turns the last fifty pages of his book into a sermon and a first-hand account of the saving power of religion. He even goes so far as to acknowledge that it sounds hokey and trite on the last page of the book but he goes out of his way to tell the reader that he actually was saved and will be walking the straight and narrow from here on out. Alright then. Let's fire up the Google and see how things have been going. Book was published in 2004... Early stumble with his probation, writing bad checks for two SUVs in 2008, evictions, avoiding service, $750,000.00 in back child support in Georgia alone, arrests in 2013 in Florida for back checks and an upcoming trial. So much for owning up and taking responsibility for things eh Roscoe? I guess your religious conversion is only useful when it helps you snooker some poor mark into giving you another chance.
Read this book for the amusing anecdotes about the pro tour in the 70s but be prepared to swallow a heaping pile of bullshit in the process.
Unfortunately, Tanner's self-image doesn't jibe with reality. There are some early warning signs, but about two-thirds of the way through this book, the wheels fall off and you're left realizing that Tanner has now conned you into feeling some compassion for him, along with his numerous ex-business partners, ex-wives, judges, and his six daughters (four biological by three wives and one New Jersey-area escort).
The book starts with a bang as Tanner recounts his arrest and early days in a German jail. We then flash back through Tanner's early years and dominance on the tennis court for Stanford. If you read this book, keep in mind that this guy got a scholarship to go to Stanford and yet he somehow manages to continue to make astoundingly stupid decisions.
Eventually, Tanner gets around to recapping some of the high points of his career which include an unexpected phone call from Arthur Ashe asking him if he wants to play doubles with him on tour. This results in some nice anecdotes about Ashe during his playing days and the relationship the two shared. But the luster soon wears off when Tanner recounts his idea of the pinnacle of comedy by adhering to the Tour's rules that doubles players wear matching uniforms by slapping on an afro wig and walking out onto the court in blackface. And he doesn't express any regret or explain that it was an immature prank even with 30 years of hindsight behind him.
Tanner shares a few more anecdotes from his playing career, including his participation in the first "Breakfast at Wimbledon" in an epic match against Bjorn Borg, before spending the majority of the second half of the book on his broken marriages and subsequent legal troubles. One of my favorite anecdotes, that pretty neatly sums up Tanner's personality and modus operandi, involves his second wife and the drug-dealing/cocaine abusing habit she somehow managed to hide from him until after they were married when a junkie shows up on his door looking to buy. Tanner expresses shock and outrage(!) and confronts his wife when she gets home. She tells him she's only selling to pay the bills. After offering to buy it from her so that she won't have to sell anymore (I know, I had to read it twice too), he asks if she's ever used it. By golly, she has! And so begins two years of cocaine abuse that's entirely glossed over except for the fact that it was to blame for his poor financial decisions during that time.
As noted above, Tanner attempts to accept responsibility for his mistakes, but he routinely comes off like a spoiled ex-jock who can't believe that the world actually wants him to take responsibility for his actions. He repeatedly refers to being lumped in with the "common criminals" despite his only crime being writing one bad check for a yacht. Reality check Roscoe: you wrote a $35,000.00 check that you knew was bad for a yacht when you had outstanding child support obligations from your ex-wife and the "one-time" escort with whom you cheated. Even when Tanner attempts to be contrite and admit his philandering with the escort, he undermines his remorse when he refers to the "unwritten rules" of banging strange women while on the road.
Tanner's descriptions of his time in prison are full of all the worst TV-movie cliches. He believes he was saved by god from all of the awful prison rape that he just knows goes on even though he admits he never saw anything like that happen. And things take an interesting turn during his time in the pokey in Germany when Tanner claims that he felt a target on his back from the "Arab" inmates because they could be members of Al Qaeda and America was currently at war in Afghanistan.
Finally, Tanner turns the last fifty pages of his book into a sermon and a first-hand account of the saving power of religion. He even goes so far as to acknowledge that it sounds hokey and trite on the last page of the book but he goes out of his way to tell the reader that he actually was saved and will be walking the straight and narrow from here on out. Alright then. Let's fire up the Google and see how things have been going. Book was published in 2004... Early stumble with his probation, writing bad checks for two SUVs in 2008, evictions, avoiding service, $750,000.00 in back child support in Georgia alone, arrests in 2013 in Florida for back checks and an upcoming trial. So much for owning up and taking responsibility for things eh Roscoe? I guess your religious conversion is only useful when it helps you snooker some poor mark into giving you another chance.
Read this book for the amusing anecdotes about the pro tour in the 70s but be prepared to swallow a heaping pile of bullshit in the process.
June 29, 2017
Roscoe Tanner was royalty among the Tennessee tennis crowd.
December 2, 2013
Surely a book that belongs in a tennis library. It is easy to read, tells the story of Tanner and tells fun facts for anyone interested in tennis in the late seventies early eighties. I have enjoyed reading. Three stars for a well written (Mike Yorkey) book.
My first acquaintance with Roscoe Tanner was as a 17-year-old for the TV. A giant with perm hair hit with incredible flexible storage holes in the sacred grass of Wimbledon 1979. That perm was too much to watch but what a power of a storage. Tanner was one of the first real service cannons. Clocked his fastest service, 153mph in Palm Springs 1978, was only improved in 2004, by Andy Roddick. Highlights of his career were the 1979 Wimbledon final against Borg, lost in five sets, and his major Australian Open in 1977, three sets win over Guillermo Vilas. In 1984 he gave up professional tennis. But Tanner came in 2003 in the news again when he was arrested in Germany because of issuing a bad check. This arrest begins his book.
The first chapters deal with the first time in German prison and how he lost all his dignity. The low point, going to the toilet with his cellmate in the same space, finally made him realize that he himself had to change. In subsequent chapters, he describes his life until then, from kid from Lookout Mountain, Tennessee, who began playing tennis until his retirement from professional tennis in 1984. Tanner's story is interesting, honest, with nice anecdotes and funny stories about his contemporaries, like Connors and Ashe, his doubles partner for some years. The third part is the story of his time in prison in Germany, extradited to the U.S. and his time in prison there. During this time Tanner reads a lot in the Bible, pray much and let Christ into his life. In the end, he arranges his affairs and is released from jail. He gets a job as tennis-coach and he's sure that he's going to do things God's way.
The book gives a good picture of this American who, born with golden spoon, anything and everything was handed forfeited .. At the end of the book you really hope that he has things straight and makes sure he stays out of trouble.
(Unfortunately this is not so: In an article in the New York Times of February 12, 2012 by Dave Siminara it is clear that he double faulted again. Within a few months after the book was Tanner was arrested again. He stayed more than one year in prison in Lake Butler. Tanner wrote in 2008 a bad check for two cars. In April 2010, Tanner and his family were expelled of their rented house. January 17, 2012 this year he is again arrested.)
My first acquaintance with Roscoe Tanner was as a 17-year-old for the TV. A giant with perm hair hit with incredible flexible storage holes in the sacred grass of Wimbledon 1979. That perm was too much to watch but what a power of a storage. Tanner was one of the first real service cannons. Clocked his fastest service, 153mph in Palm Springs 1978, was only improved in 2004, by Andy Roddick. Highlights of his career were the 1979 Wimbledon final against Borg, lost in five sets, and his major Australian Open in 1977, three sets win over Guillermo Vilas. In 1984 he gave up professional tennis. But Tanner came in 2003 in the news again when he was arrested in Germany because of issuing a bad check. This arrest begins his book.
The first chapters deal with the first time in German prison and how he lost all his dignity. The low point, going to the toilet with his cellmate in the same space, finally made him realize that he himself had to change. In subsequent chapters, he describes his life until then, from kid from Lookout Mountain, Tennessee, who began playing tennis until his retirement from professional tennis in 1984. Tanner's story is interesting, honest, with nice anecdotes and funny stories about his contemporaries, like Connors and Ashe, his doubles partner for some years. The third part is the story of his time in prison in Germany, extradited to the U.S. and his time in prison there. During this time Tanner reads a lot in the Bible, pray much and let Christ into his life. In the end, he arranges his affairs and is released from jail. He gets a job as tennis-coach and he's sure that he's going to do things God's way.
The book gives a good picture of this American who, born with golden spoon, anything and everything was handed forfeited .. At the end of the book you really hope that he has things straight and makes sure he stays out of trouble.
(Unfortunately this is not so: In an article in the New York Times of February 12, 2012 by Dave Siminara it is clear that he double faulted again. Within a few months after the book was Tanner was arrested again. He stayed more than one year in prison in Lake Butler. Tanner wrote in 2008 a bad check for two cars. In April 2010, Tanner and his family were expelled of their rented house. January 17, 2012 this year he is again arrested.)
February 9, 2018
Good book, sad story.
August 22, 2015
A semi-honest story about the ups & downs of a life on the tennis tour.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews