Since tennis has recently enjoyed an unprecedented boom approaching the dimensions of a national craze, it is odd that little or no attention has been given to how effectively the sport has been written about over the past fifty years. After all, as Orwell correctly observed, prose style is the most accurate gauge we have of manners, morals, and the direction in which society seems to be going. Tennis writing is no exception to this axiom. By examining the styles of tennis writers from the 1920's to the 1980's, one can perceive not only the changes that have taken place in how the game is played but other matters as well, such as the impact of professionalism and egalitarianism. The prose styles of tennis writers, like those of writers on other sports, can also tell us a great deal about the quickly shifting trends in journalism, which, again, are simply a manifestation of what is happening in society at large.

Before one can approach this subject with a clear focus, it is important that the term "tennis writing" be defined. Here, a comparison with branches of literary criticism is useful. These, loosely, are biography, literary history, aesthetics (matters of performance and craft), and works on a narrow literary scene such as Gertrude Stein's Paris. Although the labels may be different, tennis writing falls into similar categories. The difference lies in a sharper diminution of quality in form and substance as one shifts from one branch to the next. Because of this disparity, I would define a tennis writer as one who specializes in describing and analyzing tennis matches from an extensive background in tactics and stroke production. Anything else must be considered an embellishment of questionable legitimacy. In order of decreasing importance, the categories would be assessed as follows: