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Mix It Up, Make it Nice
Betty Blake
Secrets of a Tennis Mom
Feiwel & Friends
September 2010
On Sale: September 1, 2010
220 pages
ISBN: 0615373755
EAN: 9780615373751
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
James Blake's rise to the elite of the tennis world could be
considered improbable, even verging on the impossible. Betty
Blake shares the story of a bratty kid who wore a back brace
for 18 hours each day to correct severe scoliosis, never
attended a tennis academy, received early tennis training on
public tennis courts, grew up in New England's six-month
outdoor tennis season, and yet rose to the top 30 in the
tennis world. Just as James's future looked rosiest, with the media
speculating how high he could climb, he suffered a series of
life-altering tragedies. In 2004 he broke his neck in a
freak accident with a net post, watched his father die a
lingering death from cancer, then, due to the strain of
these experiences, he contracted shingles, which paralyzed
half his face and affected his vision, hearing and balance,
making his tennis future uncertain and resulting in his
ranking plummeting to 210. Not one to give in to despair, James fought back. As soon as
his doctors allowed, he began practicing again, working
harder than ever, and by the end of 2006 he stood once again
at the top of the tennis world, his position at number four
making him the highest-ranked American tennis player. But there's more to the story than that. Betty Blake shows
how James and his older brother Thomas were raised in a
biracial middle-class family by an African American father
and a white mother from England. Both boys attended Harvard
and both became tennis professionals. A first-class
education was by design, a tennis career was not. Education,
rather than a tennis academy, was always the top priority in
the Blake household. "Today many youngsters who exhibit talent are uprooted from
their families and whisked off to a tennis academy," writes
Betty. "There they spend more time on the court than on
schoolwork." Tom and Betty Blake rejected this for two reasons; they
refused to break up the family and would never compromise
their sons' educations. Betty writes how Tom disciplined his
sons with love and encouraged them to work hard and make the
most of their talents. Thomas, three years older than James,
blazed the trail for James to follow in school, in junior
tennis and in college. Looking up to and competing with his
brother helped shape James's determination to excel in both
academics and sports.
Betty Blake's reflections address race relations in our
society, individual identity and how their sons' ethnicity
helped them be at ease in any situation. These are the
foundation for Mix It Up, Make It Nice: Secrets of a Tennis Mom.
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