This book is the story of a single tennis match- the semifinal match between Arthur Ashe and Clark Graebner at the 1968 U.S. Open. Virtually every serve, every stroke, every cheer is detailed- and on that basis alone it would make for an excellent read as some of the greatest sportswriting ever.

McPhee, however, doesn’t stop there. He goes into the backgrounds of the players, their psyches, their styles. Graebner- white, well-off, and a Nixon supporter from Shaker Heights, Ohio describes Ashe’s go-for-broke, leave it all the court risky but athletic game as “liberal, Democratic tennis.” Ashe- African-American, from the South, not poor, but certainly not rich, and a keen observer of race relations as a black man in a white man’s game- in turn describes Graebner’s game as “Republican tennis”- steady, predictable, and very well disciplined.

I have not read many books about tennis, but I cannot imagine a finer one existing.