Carrie Soto Is Back

At the 1994 U.S. Open, retired tennis champion Carrie Soto sits in the stands watching Nicki Chan tie Soto’s own record of 20 Grand Slam wins. Chan’s victory lights the fire in Carrie’s belly again; she begins to train with her father, Javier. Her father had been her first and best trainer, drilling with her repeatedly when Soto was a young athlete and ingraining the fundamentals of tennis in her. Yet during Carrie’s pro career, she had gone to another coach after a fight with her father. Now, at the age of 37, long after most tennis players have retired into a coaching career, Javier and Carrie make another run at the Grand Slams. Carrie is a driven athlete with little to no life outside of tennis. Even non-tennis-playing readers will root hard for her to win, then cheer even harder for her to discover who she is without the sport.