HITTING HOT: Ivan Lendl's 14-day Tennis Clinic

Currently ranked number one on the men's pro tennis circuit, Lendl offers his tips for hackers and more serious players. ""Hitting hot"" is Lendl's catchword for his kind of relentless game that combines speed, endurance, and power into a walloping, wham-bam court display. Unfortunately, Lendl can't decide whom he is trying to coach. His instructions are appropriate to serious college and tourney players, yet weekend hackers have always been the main audience for books of this sort. The information provided here is thin, to say the least, as if Lendl stretched to the limit in trying to come up with something to fit into a 14-day format. Consequently, his instructions are repetitive (e.g., Day One is ""Groundstrokes, Forehand and Backhand,"" while Day Two is ""More Groundstrokes""). His general advice is thrown out in one-liners that do little to arm one intelligently. (His advice on buying a racquet, for example, mentions nothing about the relative merits vis-à-vis strength, control, wind factors of open-throated vs. solid necks, or wood vs. aluminum vs. graphite). A case where the racquet is mightier than the pen.