Court Confidential: Inside the World of Tennis

by Neil Harman

One of the most respected and lauded tennis journalists currently covering the circuit, Neil Harman has had a front-row seat to matches involving legends such as Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Venus and Serena Williams. In a career that has spanned nearly four decades, he has become a confidant to many of the game’s stars and administrators, even acting for a time as a media mentor to world number two Victoria Azarenka. Now, in this exploration, Harman shares his almost unparalleled access to the game with readers as he exposes tennis’s most intimate secrets in a book replete with personality, excitement, drama, and intrigue. Featuring frank, in-depth interviews with all the leading players, their coaching staff, and their agents and managers, Harman presents the game from an insider's perspective and offers the fresh insights and strong personal views for which he is celebrated. Court Confidential recounts a defining time for modern-day tennis; from Wimbledon to the Olympic Games, from Serena Williams's battle with illness to Andy Murray's historic grand slam victory, this is a book for tennis fans everywhere.

Genres: Sports

382 pages, Paperback

First published May 27, 2013

Reviews

[Bianca Borea]

PRO: informațiile oferite despre LTA, ATP, USTA, WTA cu referire la câteva momente critice

CONTRA: prea multe detalii despre jucători britanici care încă nu au reușit să câștige niciun turneu important până la momentul scrierii cărții

[Scott]

I skimmed some chapters that didn't grab me. This book really delves deep into the business side of tennis, and I wasn't as interested as I thought I might be when I picked up the book. Plenty of information on IMG the global sports management company, equal pay for players, the players perspectives on certain events, and plenty of player press conference recaps. The author has friendships with some of the players and agents, and he utilizes these connections for several stories. I love watching tennis more than the average sports fan, but most of the book just didn't capture my interest...

[Oscar Dent]

Thankfully written about 2012, one of the best season's in men's tennis of late (slams split, all the big four playing well throughout). Some interesting insight into the management of players, tournament and the tour.

However interest is rarely sustained; there are large passages where Neil just relates what results happened at various tournaments (with occaisional errors and mistakes on scorelines and results). The book (understandably) focusses on Murray quite heavily, even when he is only a sidestory at various tournaments. The women's tour is covered, but inconsistently and sporadically.

Enjoyable in parts, though in hindsight I might not have read this.

[Teresa]

Disappointing and quite badly written. Nothing relevatory in it about the players or the politics of the game. Author inserts himself into the narrative too often.

[Paul McCormack]

Confirmed that tennis of 70s and 80s had much better characters

[Clare]

Edit 10/08/14: I will preface this by saying that this situation doesn't involve this book in particular (as far as I know), but it seems appropriate to make potential readers aware of some unethical behaviour by the author.

It has come to light recently that Neil Harman has admitted to plagiarism in his work compiling the "Official Wimbledon Annual" books and has been suspended from his position at The Times. Details here.

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The Times correspondent Neil Harman gives his account of the tournaments, players and politics of tennis in Court Confidential, which reads more like a companion piece to the 2012 season rather than an insider’s look at the sport.

Harman is obviously well respected by the players he reports on and is unapologetically proud of this fact, and though it does come across as dry sometimes, I do enjoy his writing.

I began reading this just as the 2013 season was ending and it was nice to flashback to the events of last year and compare them to what has happened in the game since then. With 2012 being the year of the Olympics and Andy Murray's first slam title, it was definitely a memorable one, especially for British fans. And yes, he does focus a large portion on British players; he does write for a British newspaper after all and could make a case for being Murray’s no. 1 fan! (Follow @neilharmantimes on twitter for evidence ;-))

So, whilst I did enjoy re-living these memories from last year (good and bad), apart from the odd nugget of information or new-to-me quote, there is not a great wealth of knowledge here that you wouldn't already know if you follow the tour closely. The most interesting and revealing parts of the book actually come in the epilogue where he covers the anti-doping programme in tennis and the problems with LTA funding and development of young players.

A good read for tennis fans but don't expect anything groundbreaking.

[Alicia]

I was genuinely surprised at how much I didn't enjoy this. Maybe I had built my expectations up too much, maybe the digital format I read it in lended to my annoyance. But overall, I felt that there just wasn't any consistency or organization. Harman's articles in the Times are great. But this book just has too much going on in each chapter, too many sub-stories that didn't tie into the original chapter train of thought, as it jumps around from people to things to events to people so quickly. At times, I had no idea if Harman was talking about one person or a completely different one. For example, at times he'll mention someone's name and then several pages later refers back to that person using only their first name without any lead in as to why he's pertinent to what is going on. I felt that had I not followed Harman so closely on Twitter, as well as all the other big writers, players, and venues, I would be lost as to what was happening. Disappointment would be my overall feelings for this book

[Tariq Mahmood]

The author himself points out the almost death of tennis journalists due to Twitter and constant media coverage of tennis tournaments, and then follows up by writing a book with no real insights into the personal lives if super stars of the tennis world. Instead the author seems more impressed by the officials and organisers of the various tennis bodies hosting these events. Granted these administrators do a wonderful job at administrating tours and tournaments but the players are the real stars of the tennis show.
The book is a diary of sorts of a tennis journalist viewing from the court side of most of the big tournaments on the ATP circuit for the year 2012. It does have interesting stories about allocation of wild cards and UK tax laws which affect all foreign players playing in the UK, but for me falls shorts of any serious profiles of the players. There is also too much focus on British players in the book. All in all I found the book a pretty disappointing read.

[Ellen]

Really enjoyed the first half of this; but felt it got bogged down from the Olympics onwards. Mr Harman also missed out the Rogers Cup and Cincy from the 2012 schedule. Too much Andy Murray for my taste.

[Mr. Kim]

An informative review of professional tennis in 2012 but a bit boring. It may be the British style of writing...

[Bogdan]

More like an Andy Murray biography.