The Championships just wrapped at the All England Club, which leaves a very specific ache: two weeks of the best tennis on Earth, with nothing on the schedule until the hard courts of the US Open in late August. The good news is that tennis has one of the deepest bookshelves in sport and reading is the only way to make a July without a Grand Slam bearable.
So here is the answer to the question everyone types the Monday after the final: what do I read now that Wimbledon is over? These are the 15 best tennis books worth your time, from the buzziest new releases of 2026 to the classics that have earned permanent shelf space. New fans, tactics obsessives and weekend players will each find their entry.
Quick picks:
- The one everyone will be talking about: The Cruelest Game by Matthew Futterman. View on Amazon
- The one everyone recommends: Open by Andre Agassi. View on Amazon
- The sleeper that wins you matches: The Inner Game of Tennis by Timothy Gallwey. View on Amazon
The new releases
1. The Cruelest Game by Matthew Futterman (2026)
The One Everyone Will Be Talking About
Publishing August 4, 2026, from The Athletic's tennis reporter, with never-before-reported access to Alcaraz, Sinner, Gauff, Świątek and Sabalenka. It is already a Boston Globe Best Book of the Summer, with Billie Jean King calling Futterman one of the clearest journalistic voices in tennis and Kirkus praising its insight into the sport's punishing realities. Pre-order it now and it lands right as the US Open begins.
Read this if you loved: Open, or any inside-the-locker-room reporting that respects the athletes as people.
Honest note: It publishes in August, so this is a pre-order rather than a tonight read. Worth the wait.
→ Buy on Amazon2. The Warrior: Rafael Nadal and His Kingdom of Clay by Christopher Clarey (2026)
The Definitive Nadal Biography
From the author of The Master, the story of how Nadal turned 14 French Open titles into one of the great individual achievements in all of sport. The New York Times called it an authoritative companion to Clarey's Federer book. It is the closest thing to a definitive Nadal we are likely to get.
Read this if you loved: The Master, or watching a man bite a trophy fourteen times.
Honest note: It is clay-focused by design, so Wimbledon devotees will get less grass-court coverage than they might hope.
→ Buy on AmazonThe SW19 shelf
3. Wimbledon: The Official History by John Barrett (5th Edition)
The Definitive Reference
The former BBC commentator's seminal history, covering the first 133 Championships across 500-plus illustrated pages with archive photography and memorabilia from the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum. It is the story of how a small croquet club in rural Surrey became the most famous tennis venue on the planet.
Read this if you loved: Coffee-table histories you actually read cover to cover.
Honest note: At this size and price, it is a reference and a keepsake more than a beach read. That is the point.
→ Buy on Amazon4. Centre Court: The Jewel in Wimbledon's Crown by John Barrett and Ian Hewitt
The Gift That Never Misses
The award-winning official coffee-table book for Centre Court's centenary, with a foreword by Roger Federer. Beautiful, celebratory and built to sit out where guests will pick it up.
Read this if you loved: Giving a gift that makes you look like you understand the recipient.
Honest note: At 224 pages it is lighter on match analysis than the Official History. It stops before the Alcaraz era.
→ Buy on Amazon5. Wimbledon: The Pinnacle of Sport, photography by Bob Martin
The Coffee Table Stunner
256 pages from Wimbledon's longtime head photographer covering the Federer, Nadal, Djokovic, Murray and Williams sisters era, with a Tim Henman foreword and an essay by Christopher Clarey. Shortlisted for the 2025 Sports Book Awards.
Read this if you loved: Sports photography that makes you gasp at a still frame.
Honest note: It is a photo book first. Come for the images, not for narrative depth.
→ Buy on Amazon6. Strokes of Genius by L. Jon Wertheim
The Single Greatest Match
The 2008 Wimbledon final between Federer and Nadal, told in full: the fading light, the rain delays, the five hours that many still call the greatest match ever played. If you only read one Wimbledon book, this is it.
Read this if you loved: Reliving a single sporting night stretched to novel length.
Honest note: You know how the match ends. Wertheim makes the how so gripping it does not matter.
→ Buy on Amazon7. High Strung by Stephen Tignor
The Rivalry Deep-Dive
Bjorn Borg versus John McEnroe, ice against fire, culminating in the 1980 Centre Court final and the tiebreak that still gets replayed every July. A portrait of the moment tennis turned into theater.
Read this if you loved: High Strung is to tennis what any great rivalry book is to its sport: it makes you pick a side decades later.
Honest note: It is very much a period piece of the late 1970s and early 1980s. That era is the appeal.
→ Buy on Amazon8. Seventy-Seven by Andy Murray
The Home Crowd Pick
Murray's own reflection on ending Britain's 77-year wait for a men's champion in 2013, one of the most emotionally loaded afternoons in the tournament's history. Straight from the man who carried it.
Read this if you loved: Andy Murray, or the specific catharsis of a nation exhaling at once.
Honest note: It centers on the 2013 triumph, so it predates his later comebacks and retirement. A snapshot, not a full career.
→ Buy on AmazonThe canon
9. Open by Andre Agassi
The One Everyone Recommends
Widely regarded as the best sports autobiography ever written. The New York Times called it one of the most passionately anti-sports books a superstar athlete has ever produced. Agassi opens with a confession that he hated tennis. It only gets more honest from there.
Read this if you loved: Shoe Dog, or memoirs where the hero is not sure the hero is a good person.
Honest note: Skip it if you want a feel-good sports memoir. This is not one and that is exactly why it is great.
→ Buy on Amazon10. The Inner Game of Tennis by Timothy Gallwey
The Sleeper That Isn't About Tennis
The 1974 classic on the mental side of peak performance, one of Bill Gates's favorite books of all time and read by more executives than club players at this point. The tennis is the vehicle; the subject is your own head getting in your way.
Read this if you loved: Atomic Habits, or any book that quietly rewires how you approach hard things.
Honest note: If you came for tennis history, this is barely a tennis book. If you came to actually improve at anything, it is the pick.
→ Buy on Amazon11. String Theory by David Foster Wallace
The Literary One
Five essays including the famous Federer profile, from a writer the New York Times called the best tennis writer of all time. Wallace played competitively as a junior and it shows in how precisely he sees the game.
Read this if you loved: Essays that make you underline sentences and read them aloud to whoever is nearby.
Honest note: It is Wallace, so the footnotes and the sentences run long. That is the texture, not a flaw.
→ Buy on Amazon12. The Master by Christopher Clarey
The Federer Book
The definitive portrait of the modern game's most iconic player, built on two decades of access. If Nadal fans get The Warrior, this is the Federer devotee's essential text.
Read this if you loved: Watching the backhand in slow motion and wanting to understand the man behind it.
Honest note: It is admiring rather than critical. For a Federer fan that is a feature; skeptics may want more edge.
→ Buy on Amazon13. Levels of the Game by John McPhee
The Craft Masterpiece
A single 1968 US Open semifinal between Arthur Ashe and Clark Graebner, analyzed point by point, with each man's game revealing his whole background and character. McPhee makes the mundane extraordinary, which is why writers study this book more than tennis fans read it.
Read this if you loved: Nonfiction that treats structure as an art form.
Honest note: It is slim and it is about one match from 1968. Approach it as a master class, not a page-turner.
→ Buy on Amazon14. Winning Ugly by Brad Gilbert
The One That Wins You Matches
The tactical bible from the coach behind Agassi, Roddick and Murray: how to beat better players by thinking better, not hitting harder. Weekend players report actual results, which is more than most sports books can claim.
Read this if you loved: Getting a competitive edge from a book rather than a lesson.
Honest note: Skip it if you are a fan rather than a player. It is a manual and it wants you on the court.
→ Buy on Amazon15. Carrie Soto Is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid
The One That Reaches Beyond Tennis
The lone novel on this list and the reason it travels past tennis circles: a retired champion comes out of retirement at 37 to defend her Grand Slam record against a younger rival. A massive Goodreads footprint and the on-ramp for readers who came for the story and stayed for the sport.
Read this if you loved: Daisy Jones and the Six, or any comeback story with a ferocious woman at the center.
Honest note: It is fiction, so purists wanting real history should treat it as the dessert, not the meal.
→ Buy on AmazonHonorable Mentions
Rafa by Rafael Nadal (his own memoir) (Amazon), A Champion's Mind by Pete Sampras (Amazon), The Champion's Mind by Patrick Mouratoglou (Amazon) and Fedegraphica by Mark Hodgkinson (a data-visual celebration of Federer) (Amazon). Planning a trip to the All England Club next summer? The official Wimbledon travel guides (Amazon) are thin on prose but useful for anyone in the ballot queue.
FAQ
What is the best tennis book of all time? Most readers land on Open by Andre Agassi (for the memoir) or Levels of the Game by John McPhee (for the craft). The Inner Game of Tennis is the pick if you want a book that improves how you play, not just what you know.
What should I read now that Wimbledon is over? Start with Strokes of Genius to relive the greatest final Centre Court has staged, then pre-order The Cruelest Game so you have something landing right as the US Open begins in late August.
What is the best tennis book for a new fan? Open by Andre Agassi is the friendliest way in: it reads like a novel and needs zero prior knowledge. Carrie Soto Is Back works too if you prefer fiction.
Are there good tennis books that will make me a better player? Two: The Inner Game of Tennis for the mental side and Winning Ugly by Brad Gilbert for the tactical one. Read both and your next match changes.
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