Tennis Vacation Read: "The Open Era"

The debut novel by Edward Schmit blends tennis, mental health, and romance together.

Though it is still the peak of summer, this midsection of July represents a lull in the tennis calendar. After Wimbledon action fades out, there are a couple of weeks with only European 250-level events before the tours ramp back up for ATP-WTA 500 Washington later this month.

One way you can tell it’s a vacation window for top tennis players: several of them planned their weddings for this week. Tommy Paul (to Paige Lorenze), Daria Kasatkina (to Natalia Zabiiako) and the player pairing of Katie Boulter and Alex de Minaur all tied the knot within recent days.

So with vacations and romance in the tennis air, I thought this would be the right time to share my recent conversation with Edward Schmit, author of the new tennis romance The Open Era.

The Open Era (Berkley) and Edward Schmit (Photo by Erin Burniston)

The Open Era was my own recent vacation read while I was in Lyon for a few days after the French Open last month, and once I cracked it open I devoured it quickly. I can be a tough audience for tennis works, but this fictional story gets an impressive amount of the details of professional tennis and the U.S. Open right. The story also weaves together two themes that have gotten a lot of attention within the sport in recent years: player mental health and anxiety, and the possibility of an openly gay player (or players) in top-level men’s tennis.

The Open Era takes place over the course of just one tournament but covers a lot of ground for its two main characters, Californian qualifier Austin Hardy and Mexican star Diego Cruz.

Author Edward Schmit and I spoke last month via Zoom; I’ve included our whole conversation here as a video below. We discuss topics including how he worked to get so many of the tennis details right, what it’s been like watching the openly gay Brazilian João Lucas Reis da Silva compete in Grand Slam qualifying draws, and the inevitable comparisons to Heated Rivalry.

You can buy The Open Era here, or wherever you buy your books.

It’s going to be a busy month for tennis book releases—which are often concentrated around this time of year for American audiences—so there will be more recommendations for your shelves soon.

Thanks for reading Bounces! -Ben