Carrie Soto Is Back: A Novel

Carrie Soto has lived her life for tennis. Her father was an Argentine tennis pro and her mother died when she was young. She has grown up around tennis. She is ruthless and known as the "battleaxe". She just wants to win, regardless of what people think of her.  In her career, she won more championships than anyone else in history. She started to fall and retired in her young 30s. A few years later, after another tennis player tied her record, she decided to come back. 

The book is fiction, but feels like it could have been a sports memoir. References to fictional (Daisy Jones and the Six) and actual (Inner Game of Tennis) are intertwined. You almost feel you could look up Carrie Soto on Wikipedia.

Carrie struggles with the mental part of tennis. She has difficulty losing. She is not well liked by others. Nobody on the women's tour will practice with her. She ends up practicing with an older player on the men's tournament. They had a brief fling in their youth. It is clear that he will end up being a love interest in the story, even though it is a struggle for her.

Carrie started out with her father as a coach. She rose to prominence with him coaching. Then she chose a new coach for her peak years (and decline.) For the comeback, it was her father again. The story is as much about her relationships (with father, men and other tennis players) as it is about tennis. I rocketed through in one sitting. It shows plenty of growth in character and has a satisfying (if not expected) ending.