I put off writing this review since nothing I write would comprehensively describe how awestruck I was at every sentence stitched and perfected by Rowan Phillips. Calling this just another tennis book is an insult to the epic work of poetry that it is, but that was all I’d known about the book when I picked it up. There are some words, lines and entire pages I will forever carry with me for the melody of the words with the tennis ball bouncing in a corner to give us the rhythm. If you’re a lover of tennis, and a lover of good writing (or one of the two), pick this book up. This has been the single most memorable work of art in the world of tennis, a position I had previously wholeheartedly awarded DFW’s String Theory. The two books are incredibly different and yet strike similar notes, with the authors using their prowess in writing and exploiting their readers’ love for the sport to definitively capture their places as possibly the best tennis writers ever.

Thank you Rowan Phillips for this magnificent work and for making me love the sport even more.

Here’s one example of the verses from The Circuit. I have over a dozen pages saved and wish I could share them all but am choosing to restrain myself so you have the opportunity that I did to dive into the book and listen to the song yourself.

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Source: The Circuit: A Tennis Odyssey by Rowan Phillips, preview from Google ebooks

– Swathi Chandrasekaran
Here’s me on Goodreads!