Levels of the Game

Levels of the Game is John McPhee’s astonishing account of a tennis match played by Arthur Ashe against Clark Graebner at Forest Hills in 1968.

It begins with the ball rising into the air for the initial serve and ends with the final point. McPhee provides a brilliant, stroke-by-stroke description while examining the backgrounds and attitudes which have molded the players’ games.

“This may be the high point of American sports journalism”- Robert Lipsyte, The New York Times