Ladies of the Court: The Struggle to Confront the #MeToo Moment in Women's Tennis

by Michael Mewshaw, Frank Deford (Introduction)

Celebrated sportswriter and award-winning investigative journalist, Michael Mewshaw, captures the essence of the women's tennis tour, delving into such complex characters as Martina Navratilova, Monica Seles and Venus and Serena Williams. Through in-depth interviews with some of the most renowned coaches, trainers, and sports agents, Mewshaw gives readers a rare eye-opening look into the world of women's tennis. The stars of the women's tennis tour are the richest, most famous, and most conspicuous female athletes in the world, and yet the public's perception of them is often limited to the little that can be gleaned from press conferences and photo opportunities. Eager to get beyond the cosmetic image, Mewshaw followed the circuit from Rome to Paris, London, New York, and points in between. Along the way he met teenage millionaires such as Monica Seles, Jennifer Capriati, and Mary Joe Fernandez. Then he talked to their opponents, obscure girls struggling to stay on the tour and continuing to pursue a dream. He spoke with adolescents, anxious about their emerging sexuality, and veterans trying to balance love affairs, marriages, and motherhood with the demands of a tennis career.

"I'm delighted that Ladies of the Court is seeing print again. It was an important sports book, written with a skeptical eye and an exquisite hand, and it reminds all of the reporters who cover a sport that they have to constantly stand back and reexamine what they take so for granted."
--Frank Deford, from the introduction

Features an updated new chapter by the Author for 2019

313 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 22, 2019

About the author

Michael Mewshaw is an American author of 11 novels and 8 books of nonfiction, and works frequently as a travel writer, investigative reporter, book reviewer, and tennis reporter. His novel Year of the Gun was made into a film of the same name by John Frankenheimer in 1991. He is married with two sons.

Alan Cheuse, National Public Radio's longtime "voice of books," has called him "the best novelist in America that nobody knows."