Book review: Sally Bradfield's Not Quite 30-Love

Many tennis books are nonfiction historical accounts, biographies or memoirs, but *Not Quite 30-Love* is very different. Author Sally Bradfield spent two decades working for the WTA and ATP as a communications and brand manager, and published her first book in January.

The manuscript for Not Quite 30-Love started out as a true story, but Bradfield quickly adapted (for fear of lawsuits) to fiction, and that's how protagonist Katie Cook was born. Cook is a 28-year-old Australian who gets swept up into the WTA sphere, traveling the globe with her colleagues and all of the pros.

"All of the scenarios of what players' lives are like on the tour, and what people who work with them lives are like on the tour, I tried to make as real as possible," Bradfield said on the TENNIS.com Podcast.

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Cook jumps headfirst into juggling WTA, player and journalist demands, while trying to prove her worth in a new career with a very hectic lifestyle—which, in many ways, mimics that of a pro player's. Here's a telling excerpt:

The flight from Australia landed at 7.am. yesterday morning. Straight to the tennis stadium—no shower, just a clothes change and teeth clean in the players' locker room, my suitcase standing in the corner. By 6 p.m., sitting at my desk in the press room, the jet leg was begging my brain to give in. This was the job. This was what I signed up for.

Since many tournaments are co-ed, Cook quickly runs into attractive ATP bad boy, Nikolai Petrov, who has a long track record with women. Bradfield changed the names of the key characters in the book, but sprinkled in some real ones like Nick Kyrgios and Marat Safin, so readers wouldn't leap to the wrong conclusions. She began her career in 1996, and Petrov was initially based on an older former pro.

"My hero was John McEnroe," Bradfield said. "So in the original drafts of the book, she was in love with John McEnroe. But clearly that wasn't going to hold water in 2020.”

Here's an excerpt from one of Katie and Nikolai's first exchanges, which fittingly takes place on a tennis court.

"His smile was beautiful. He put out his hand for me to shake. A static electric shock caused me to pull my hand away and drop the ball in my other hand. As it rolled, Nikolai deftly stopped and scooped it up onto his racquet in one move. 'Do you want to hit?'"

So while love is front and center (and explosive), the ins and outs of the WTA are a huge part of the story. Cook handles tasks and struggles that a real WTA communicates manager deals with like corralling players into exhibitions, thinking up marketing campaigns, organizing photoshoots and interviews, and building professional relationships with young athletes.

There are also a few scandals that add a lot of twists and turns to Cook's work and love life. But you'll have to read it to find out what they are, and how her love story ends.