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Marissa Irvin is one of those rare players who flawlessly made the transition from the top of the junior rankings to the head of the college rankings, and on to a fairly successful professional career. She can now add award-winning author to her resume, but the tennis book she wrote is not what you might expect.

Now 34, Irvin has definitely lived the tennis dream. After finishing her junior career with the 1997 U.S. Open Junior Girls Doubles title (with partner Alexandra Stevenson) and reaching No. 1 in the U.S. in singles and doubles in the nation, she headed to Stanford University.

While at Stanford, Irvin made the NCAA singles finals two years in a row (1999, 2000). She also won the 2000 Honda Award as the top female tennis player in the nation.

It was in 2000 that Irvin left Stanford to turn professional. She had a career high of No. 51 in singles and No. 84 in doubles, competing in 22 Grand Slam events.

While signing books at the U.S. Open this past summer, Irvin, now married to Patrick Gould, learned that her recent work, A Magical Racquet Ride won the "Mom's Choice" Award. She sat down to talk about the book and her views on changes in junior and college tennis.

Questions and Answers

Marcia Frost (MF): What made you decide to write this book?

Marissa Irvin (MI): It was a combination of things. First, there just wasn't anything out there for young kids to get them excited about the sport. I think tennis offers such wonderful attributes. It's played all over the world; it's played on different surfaces; it's played individually or on a team; it's for boys or girls.

I've always loved tennis and I love writing, and I have three children of my own. They - particularly my oldest son - had found out that I had played tennis, and they wanted to know about it. I looked online for books, but there just weren't any out there. Also, when I was teaching, my students would want to learn about the sport.