Featherstone 
Game. Set. Memoir! The rise of tennis books and why they’re ace reads
How I got into tennis memoirs…
Summer holidays when I was little meant swapping our fibro house by the beach with cousins who lived (what seemed like a world away!) at Warragamba. The sound of the summer holidays changed from rolling surf, to the unfamiliar roars of lions at the African Lion Safari; crackling brush under foot on walking trails; and when everything got too hot outside or the flies lifted us off our feet, there’d be a battle for the TV to watch either The Australian Open (the parents) or play black and white ‘tennis’ Pong on the Atari console (the kids).
The parents usually won, and so it was we grew up to the sounds of tennis, learned the names of players and began taking an interest in major tournaments around the world. My Mum, elderly now, has had her favourites over the years including Evonne Goolagong Cawley, John Newcome and Tony Roche, and more recently, Ash Barty and Alex de Minaur (oh my goodness she would swap them for me if she could!). And she also has a soft spot for Nick Kyrgios, staying up till all hours whenever he plays overseas.
Top tennis books and memoirs
So in the past few years I began picking up tennis memoirs and biographies for her to read including both Jelena Dokic’s books Fearless and Unbreakable; Ash Barty’s My Dream Time, Naomi Osaka (by Ben Rothenberg), Maria Sharapova’s Unstoppable and Andre Agassi’s Open. She was totally absorbed by them, so I gave them a crack too, and even though I couldn’t remember the last time I’d read a sporting memoir, I couldn’t stop turning those pages.
And then…serendipity. I was contacted to help work on a book for former world #1 junior champion Todd Ley. I’d heard of Todd Woodbridge, but who was this Todd Ley I wondered?
I was about to find out.
The draft manuscript arrived. Instantly. Hooked! Like…up all night reading type of hooked.
SMASHED: Tennis prodigies, parents and parasites
Todd’s memoir/expose – perfectly and poignantly titled SMASHED: Tennis prodigies, parents and parasites – had me shaking my head, gasping, laughing and crying.
The combination of his very personal story, his fierce insights into the world of tennis (from suburban courts to elite levels), his outrage at what happens to many elite young athletes in the system and the resulting dysfunction and damage caused by the adults they become) and his brutal honesty combined with an electric, one-of-a-kind writing voice were magnetic. This was one of those books, like Maggie Walters SPLIT, that will long stay with me.
Conor Niland’s The Racket
Like former professional Irish tennis player Conor Niland’s The Racket (published last year to much acclaim), Todd takes us behind the scenes of the professional tour and seemingly glamorous tournaments like Wimbledon.
‘The next Lleyton Hewitt”
SMASHED also delves deep into coach-player relationships, extremist sport parents, and the child-factory sporting academies that much of the industry is built on (Todd went to the same Florida academy as Andre Agassi though decades later). The book is also full of plenty of coaching gold.
In the book, Todd takes us on his train wreck of a ride from being dubbed ‘the next Lleyton Hewitt’ by John Newcombe and being crowned world #1 junior tennis champion at just 12 years of age, to hanging out with famous players; completely flaming out; coaching players on the international circuit; and then onto his time spent as a raging alcoholic roaming the streets. To read the book is to have front row seats to understand why and how it all happened.
Kokkinakis and Kyrgios
And with SMASHED being launched during The Australian Open (where in 2022 Todd was in the players’ box as a coach for the famous Thanassi Kokkinakis/Nick Kyrgios doubles win and which he details the fascinating behind-the-scenes in the book), I have hope Todd’s story will open the conversation around the hidden damage done to children (and the adults they become) by the tennis industry – and how it can be avoided.
A warning for Pickleball parents
May SMASHED also stand as a guide and warning to the up and coming pickleball industry and the parents who pursue it for themselves through their children, as well as an ‘on-notice’ to associations, talent management companies, pickleball coaches, and sponsors.
This memoir is not vanilla
Todd has burned (if not blown up!) a lot of relationships and bridges in the tennis world over the years, this book maps the triggers. And don’t expect it to be your typical, ultra-polished, literary degree memoir where the writer has ‘processed everything, forgiven everyone and is now the perfect version of themselves’. This memoir is gritty, full of dark humour and intense, that’s why it’s a compelling read for lovers of memoir, not just those with an interest in sport, tennis and pickleball.
The power of memoir
As I’ve said before, sometimes it’s not just what the memoirist says or how they say it, what blows me away is that they’ve survived to say it at all.
WHERE TO GET THE BOOK : Signed copies of SMASHED can be purchased direct through Unsportsmanlike Publishing at Toddley.com.au and the ebook and paperback are available globally from your favourite retailers in ebook and paperback. You can ask your library to get it in too.
You can enjoy a reel of our book launch visit to the Australian Open here.
Here’s a great story about Todd Ley and Smashed in The Australian and FoxSports by Shannon Molloy
Reviews for SMASHED
Writing in The Newtown Review of Books, reviewer Braham Dabscheck called SMASHED ‘One of the most important books you will read on tennis’. The Newtown Review of Books review of SMASHED is here
The “you are there” atmosphere Todd Ley creates in the course of exploring tennis’s hidden influences makes for an unforgettable read that’s hard to put down…Offering a candidness not usually seen in either the sport of tennis or books about it…it’s an eye-opening and enthralling analysis and powerful memoir. Midwest Book Review (D. Donovan, senior reviewer)
A fascinating and bruising story. Part memoir, part expose, part philosophical reflection.A raw, illuminating and confronting self-help book for parents of young sporting proteges, and for those who have been smashed by the deep impacts of their parents’ ambitions. – Karen Viggers, author, Sidelines and co-host Secrets from the Green Room podcast
This was insane for me to read. It’s dark, full-on, and very, very important. An essential read. Luke Sebastiani, host, Going Pro podcast