Tennis’s Strangest Matches: Extraordinary but True Stories from over a Century of Tennis by Peter Seddon

Description

In this hugely entertaining collection of true stories taken from over a hundred years of world tennis history, award-winning sports historian Peter Seddon has gathered together the most extraordinary events ever to occur on a tennis court.

They include the Wimbledon final between the tea-drinking vicar and the mad Irishman convicted of murdering a woman and travelling with her butchered body hidden in his trunk; the 6ft 2″ doctor who had a sex-change and won a women’s tournament; the ‘Match of the Century’ between the ‘Women’s Libber’ and the ‘Male Chauvinist Pig’. There are matches played on board ship and on the wings of an airborne plane, the game played in full regimental dress, the All-England champion who turned out in drag and the player who rated himself so highly he played an entire match while carrying someone ‘piggy-back’.

A delight for tennis fans the world over, Tennis’s Strangest Matches is a unique look at the curiosities of an endlessly popular sport revealing the ‘strawberries and cream’ game as you’ve never seen it before.