In the golden age of tennis, when players were just learning how to become media personalities, men like John McEnroe, Jimmy Connors, Björn Borg and Ivan Lendl ruled the court. Now in a tell-all memoir, former top 10 seeded tennis star and chief McEnroe rival, Bill Scanlon, presents an unfettered look at the good old days of tennis when some of the most colorful (and infamous) players in history went head-to-head and the game was changed forever.
Bad News For McEnroe is in part a revelation of the feud between McEnroe and the author that began when they were teenagers, but the essence of this book are the wonderful and surprising on- and off-the-court high jinks of such notable players as Guillermo Vilas, Borg, McEnroe, Ilie Nastase and Connors, all of whom Scanlan played and knew intimately, from locker room fights to on-court breakdowns and blow-ups. A story that could not have come from anyone but a true insider, Scanlon's tale of life on the pro tennis circuit will shock and delight tennis fans everywhere.
"McEnroe was determined not merely to win but to teach Scanlon a lesson. I had never seen him actively and deliberately go after another player before."
Richard Evans, McEnroe biographer
"Bill Scanlon is the fly in John McEnroe's eye, the darting pesty pain that sends a highstrung young man to the outer limits of his temper."
