Peter Underwood is a doctor, writer, broadcaster, activist, and the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2017. He has a long involvement with the Medical Association for Prevention of War, a group of health professionals who in 2009 founded the International Campaign Against Nuclear Weapons. He divides his time between peace work, medical education, growing fine wool, and writing. A passionate student of tennis since childhood, The Pros is his first nonfiction book.
Peter Underwood
Tennis History
In December of 1967 the British LTA endorsed Open Tennis. For the whole 1968 season, at least in Britain--including Wimbledon--it was decided there would be no reference to "amateurs" or "professionals." What were the feelings of the unassuming player who...
Tennis History
After winning the Grand Slam in 1962--in a tennis world split between amateur and pro-- there was one pinnacle left for Rod Laver to climb. He had to take on the great pro players, the "vagabond rug beaters." Laver wanted...
Tennis History
At 21 years of age, Rod Laver first got through to the final rounds of a major—the 1959 Wimbledon. In the Final, he found himself confronting the Peruvian American Alex Olmedo. Olmedo was strong, possessed a fine serve and volley,...
Tennis History
Besides his exceptional ball sense (Click Here for Part 1), Rod Laver's first coach Charlie Hollis saw 3 additional attributes in the young player. First, Rod was left-handed. Second, he was inexhaustible. Third, he was innately calm. In those times,...
Tennis History
By the time Bill Tilden was forty he was leading a double life. One on the tennis stage with remnants of glory, the other off the stage and inglorious. Off the stage he was pursuing a string of older boys...
Tennis History
About mid-way through his life, Tilden's personal demons began nosing their way from the private into the public space. A chasm lay between the performer and the person behind it. Who was behind Tilden's many masks? Nabokov's invented character of...
Tennis History
On February 18, 1931, Bill Tilden made his professional debut at Madison Square Garden. It was the opener of a head to head series to establish the World Pro Champion. His opponent was Karel Kozeluh. A response of "Karel who?"...
Tennis History
It started in Queensland, the state Aussies sometimes call --with a mixture of respect and derision--the Deep North. On August 9, 1938, in the northern coastal town of Rockhampton (population 33,500), Roy and Melba Laver greeted the arrival of their...
Tennis History
Until the late 1960s professional tennis players were banned from competing in the world's major tournaments. Professional players were forced into a traveling circus playing each other in long and often tatty tours that took them all over the world....