Add this copy of Match Point to cart. $11.92, fair condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Atlanta rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Brownstown, MI, UNITED STATES, published 1979 by Western Publishing Company.
Add this copy of Match Point to cart. $11.92, fair condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Reno rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Reno, NV, UNITED STATES, published 1979 by Western Publishing Company.
Add this copy of Match Point to cart. $12.10, fair condition, Sold by Jenson Books Inc rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Logan, UT, UNITED STATES, published 1979 by Western Publishing Company.
12-year-old Dori Sinclair is the 3rd of 4 children in a Tennis Family, but dad George has been so involved in guiding the paths of 16-year-old Stacy and 15-year-old David (called Dave or Davy) that he's never gotten around to teaching Dori or 6-year-old Betsy--never even thought about it, in fact. Dori's role is to look after Betsy on playgrounds near where tennis matches involving her family, including Grandma Sinclair, are being played...and sometimes she even "drops the ball" in that role. She and Betsy have actually broken out a little and gotten involved in softball, but after a real "chapter-of-accidents" day that is mostly her own fault, The Big Game is in jeopardy (no) thanks to her. Some good comes out of this disastrous period: Dad is convinced that he should start teaching Dori and Betsy; Grandma is willing to help; and Stacy and Dave agree to help when and where needed.
Will Dori and Betsy be as successful and/or as well-known as their siblings? And what else--how much more--do Stacy and Dave want from their own lives? Stacy's got a college-bound boyfriend and she wouldn't mind getting her own degree; and Dave's actually rather good at yet another sport. If one of them gives up tennis stardom, can Dori step up--maybe even overshadow one or the other of them? Does she have a chance? Well, at the the time she got into softball, girls were still fighting for their rights; (Sanderlin explains this through her very well) and when she gets to high school she drops by the gym wanting to join the tennis team and...
Sanderlin offers a casual style that makes MATCH POINT a treat to read; she provides pronunciations of Spanish-influenced California town names and throws in an unusual feature of one rival school's tennis equipment. Dori says straight out that her English teacher would deduct all kinds of points for grammar, etc, "but I'm just writing the way I talk, okay?"
The book is divided into 2 parts (unevenly--although there are 16 chapters overall, the division is not 8/8; and that's not the only reason it might feel disjointed in spots) and covers maybe 3 years in the life of the Sinclair family, aka "The Rock Canyon Racketeers." There are several full-page b/w illustrations (by Marilyn Hamann), mainly depicting Dori in the heat of battle, usually with archrival Luellen Jarvis. And since this was published in 1979, the "battle scenes" are tamer than they would be in books written today.
Also dating this basically worthy book: Both of Dori's parents have fulltime jobs which are basically unidentified, but Dori's mother is never ID'd as other than "Mom" or "Mrs. George Sinclair" (as she is ID'd in newspaper reports when she plays doubles tennis with her husband). She's "just a housewife" and unequal doubles partner, whose own mother lives "back East" and is as un-tennis-mad as Grandma Sinclair is tennis-mad. Stacy's boyfriend wants to be the breadwinner of their future home and family and doesn't understand why Stacy has a problem with that attitude.
Readers will get a taste of life as it was, hopefully as it keeping changing for the better, and a good taste of life on the tennis court. (Freakout Warning: Keep remember the publication date is 1979 and try to stay calm as Stacy's boyfriend responds to the question "When does the new college semester start?"--especially to exactly HOW he phrases his response and how Dori and Sanderline phrase the exposition around it. YIKES!)