Strokes of Genius

As promised, here's a post where y'll can ask L. Jon Wertheim questions pertaining to his new book, Strokes of Genius:Federer, Nadal and the Greatest Tennis Match Ever Played. I've read the book, and it's a testament to Jon's peripatetic intellect (in what other tennis book would you find a quote from that great novel/movie, Shane?) as well as his deep knowledge of - and love for -  the game. This book uses its subject as a jumping off point to chart many of the changes in the ever-evolving game of tennis, and to paint a broad-stroke portrait of tennis today, and the degree to which Federer and Nadal serve as its paragons and representatives.

Most of you know I'm friends with Jon - in fact, we're going to be flat-mates as Wimbledon in just about a week's time. So I was more or less in the loop as this book took shape. Like most players in recent years, neither Federer nor Nadal wanted to give away too much of the material that will eventually end up in either man's official auto-biography, and that actually worked to Jon's benefit in some ways - it enabled him to put his twin subjects into context, and create a book of broader scope and sweep.

Jon's model for the book was John McPhee's classic, Levels of the Game (Jon writes about that volume in his book). The difference between these two books and how they were produced is in itself a telling comment on how the game has grown and changed - become far more complex, high-pressured, closely-watched and globally significant.

Anyway, Jon will answer some of your questions, in a post that I'll publish tomorrow at around noon. Please submit your questions in the comments section of this post. You have until 9 a.m. tomorrow morning, EST, to pose a question. Please refrain from making any general comments about the game or the book (you can do that in tomorrow's post), because Jon will get to more questions if he doesn't have to wade through extraneous or irrelevant comments.

-- Pete