Circuit a Tennis Odyssey

"You may never have played tennis or watched it, but Phillips beautifully describes the experience of loving it. His exegesis might stand in for any fan's love of any sport."--Lynne Tillman, Bookforum In The Circuit, the award-winning poet--and Paris Review sports columnist--Rowan Ricardo Phillips chronicles 2017 as seen through the unique prism of its pivotal, revelatory, and historic tennis season. The annual tennis schedule is a rarity in professional sports in that it encapsulates the calendar year. And like the year, it's divided into four seasons, each marked by a final tournament: the Grand Slams. Phillips charts the year from winter's Australian Open, where Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal renewed their rivalry in a match for the ages, to fall's U.S. Open, when Maria Sharapova returned to the game as only she could--by shocking the world. Along the way, Phillips paints a new, vibrant portrait of tennis, one that captures not only the emotions, nerves, and ruthless tactics of the point-by-point game but also the quicksilver movement of victory and defeat on the tour, placing that sense of upheaval within a broader cultural and social context. * For readers of John Jeremiah Sullivan, William Skidelsky, and Raymond Arsenault * A Finalist for the PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing