by Mauro Cappiello

Italian daily sports paper "La Gazzetta dello Sport" launched a great initiative for all the fans of vintage and contemporary tennis. "I grandi del tennis ai raggi X" (Tennis greats under X-rays) is a collection of 22 volumes dedicated to the most important protagonists of the sport, on both men's and women's sides, from the 80's up to now.

The books, in pocket-size format, will be available every Monday at an extra of € 4,99 plus the price of the daily paper issue (€ 1,40), but the first volume, dedicated to John McEnroe, will be sold on Monday October 30th at an extra price of just 1 euro.

The initiative was presented yesterday at Milan, where John McEnroe, Ivan Lendl, Michael Chang and Goran Ivanisevic were guests of the opening media conference of "La Grande Sfida", a champions event between Milan and Genova that took the old legends of tennis back to Italy for the first time since 2008.

Of course there will also be a volume (issue n. 10) dedicated to Stefan Edberg, which is quite an event, since there are really few monographic books about the Swede.

According to the presentation article from today's issue of "La Gazzetta dello Sport" by Luca Marianantoni, that you can read in Italian below, the books will tell "the lives, the most legendary exploits, the numbers and the technique of unforgettable characters, with a fluent and engaging writing style, bringing them together in a collection book series for the first time."

Of course all the volumes are written in Italian, but can be ordered worldwide, thanks to Gazzetta Store.it. The complete collection can already be ordered here at a price of 106 euros.

Here's the complete plan of the issues:

#1. John McEnroe
#2. Ivan Lendl
#3. Andre Agassi
#4. Bjorn Borg
#5. Novak Djokovic
#6. Rafael Nadal
#7. Roger Federer
#8. Boris Becker
#9. Pete Sampras
#10. Stefan Edberg (out on Dec. 22nd, 2014)
#11. Adriano Panatta
#12. Jimmy Connors
#13. Andy Murray
#14. Fabio Fognini
#15. Maria Sharapova
#16. Cris Evert
#17. Martina Navratilova
#18. Steffi Graf
#19. Monica Seles
#20. Serena Williams
#21. Francesca Schiavone / Flavia Pennetta
#22. Sara Errani / Roberta Vinci

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Post update of Monday October 20th, 2014

We had a quick look at the first volume of  "I grandi del tennis ai raggi X" dedicated to John McEnroe that was out today with La Gazzetta dello Sport (€ 1,00 + € 1,40, the price of the daily). In this post update we can therefore give you a preview of the book structure and an idea of what you will find in the issue dedicated to Stefan Edberg that will be available on Monday December 22nd.

The volume is a 96-page pocket-size format that starts with a two page intro about the most peculiar aspects of the tennis player that made him eligible in the tennis legends. An "identity card" section gives a quick profile before starting with a deeper biography and technical analysis of the player's style.

The middle part of the book is a beautiful "photo portfolio" that narrates the legend's life and career through a lot of rare high definition pictures.

The last twenty pages of the book collect quotes by other players, a list of the career top-five matches, a shot-by-shot rating card and an incredible section of stats (records, rankings, head-to-heads with other greats, tournaments won, performances in Grand Slam events and year-end Masters.)

We warmly recommend to purchase not only the book about Stefan Edberg, but each volume of this series (€ 4,99 + the price of the daily, from next issue) that can't be missing in the personal bookcase of any tennis fan.

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Post update of Thursday December 4th, 2014

Last Monday, the book series "I Grandi del Tennis ai raggi X" by Italian daily sports paper La Gazzetta dello Sport published the pocket issue dedicated to Roger Federer. The volume is incredibly updated, as it even includes pictures from the recent Davis Cup final that Switzerland won against France in Lille.

Some short excerpts of Federer's biography are dedicated to his partnership with Stefan Edberg, even if it's understood that there will be more about that from Stefan's point of view when his book will be out in Italian newspaper shops on December 22nd.

Below are some photo captures of the Federer volume, that, like all the other ones and the complete series, you can also purchase online on Gazzetta Store.it»