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What: “Zina: My Life in Women’s Tennis”

Author: Zina Garrison with Doug Smith.

Publisher: Frog Ltd.

Price: $15.95

The first 50 pages of Zina Garrison’s autobiography probably will surprise those who thought they knew almost everything about the former tennis star.

This work, quite clearly, is no mundane recital of facts or recreation of routine matches from her past, which lifts it beyond the ordinary sports book.

Garrison and veteran tennis writer Doug Smith of USA Today adeptly frame her life story by interspersing chapters from her 1990 run to the Wimbledon final, victories over Monica Seles and Steffi Graf, and the loss to Martina Navratilova.

She doesn’t hesitate in discussing her bout with bulimia, her marital problems and subsequent divorce, and the racism she faced growing up in Houston and in her junior days. Garrison is especially candid about her treatment by the USTA, pointing out inequities in the selection process at the junior level.

“That was my first real brush with USTA racism at the highest level,” she wrote. “That kind of thing still happens to blacks in the USTA across the board. It got in the way of Chanda Rubin when she was advancing. It bit Mal Washington, Lori McNeil, Katrina Adams, and every other black player. We were often pushed back from getting into an event, receiving an award, or just being properly recognized.”