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Tennis racquet collecting is a wonderful hobby which has been expanded considerably thanks to Ebay. Racquets never seen in Australia can now be purchased and the array of brands and designs is quite staggering. To appreciate the subject we recommend you find a copy of Siegfried Kuebler’s book “The Book of Tennis Rackets”. It is a wonderful testament to the first racquet makers through to the 1990’s. More updates are planned, and presented here are some unusual designs that have broadened the horizon of shape, function, stringing and look. One of the most significant developments in tennis racquet design has occurred due to the new construction materials such as graphite. This has allowed designers to explore a variety of shapes and string surface areas, the latest being 137sq in., (Gamma BIG BUBBA) that earlier wood materials could not withstand. Some people like paintings. Racquet collectors enjoy the skill of fine workmanship, design and special effects in the very same way plus they look sensational along a wall. This gallery includes racquets made all round the world.
 | | Hazell Streamline UK 1930’s Made popular by Henry Wilfred “Bunny” Austin who played with these at Wimbledon. Way ahead of their time, models were also produced for squash and badminton. Models were differentiated by coloured star logos and you may well find green, red, bue and white star examples all of which are very expensive. |
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| Dayton USA late 1920’s – 1940’s One of the first metal head/wood handle combinations. They were strung with piano wire. There were plenty of models and colours so whilst available the trick is to find them in good condition with not to much rust or paint loss. |
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| Silver Fox UK c 1930’s Another version of a stainless steel metal and wood combination. A patent number printed with the logo cannot be confirmed as being correct. Maybe a dummy patent was a good marketing idea back then? |
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| Maynard Air Racquet c1990’s USA designed the string set comes on a separate frame which is held in place by a tube filled with air. Really out there for design and if anyone has got one, how does it play?
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 |  | Prom Am USA late 1974 Designed by Tom Galich. Single piece all alloy construction with a hollow handle. Not a rivet in sight. |
 | | Dunlop Monoshaft UK 1972 As the Wilson/Lacoste T2000 was booming, Dunlop produced these very nice looking racquets, often confused to be squash racquets. |
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| Macgregor Tourney c1970’s Famous golf club company where the design guys thought why not. Two steel (golf club) shafts between the wooden head and handle make this a very attractive racquet. Tourney is short for tournament by the way and Macgregor also marketed golf clubs with the same name. |
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| Tretorn Sweden 1968 String set in the blue aluminium frame can be removed from the racquet frame by undoing the butt cap, sliding off the handle and undoing the cross bar (pictured). This allows the frame to spring open so a new string set can be inserted. Takes a few minutes only.
They often came with 2-3 different string sets with different tensions or as back ups for breakage. |
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| John Mott, Silver Shadow, UK Hand made in Farnham Surrey. The factory made tennis and squash racquets for a short time then sold the patents and left the industry. The finish is superb with no visible rivets and the fit between the throat piece and frame is sheer precision. We would like to learn more about this company. |
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| Wilson Legacy 1983 Rare shape. Wood with plastic throat. A bit weird, but that’s interesting. |
 |  | Wilson Sting 1985 Aluminium frame with nice string treatment at the throat. You can tell they in the same family as the Legacy above given the very similar shape. |
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| Adidas Model A nice shape with a v style throat used often in Europe by Volkl and Fischer. |
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| Bancroft Slingshot USA 1983 Made in Germany under license by Markhill. Great extended string pattern to the top of the very long handle. |
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| Bio sports The Gripper 1984 A curved grip. You might think you have seen everything but this is meant to help with tennis elbow by keeping the racquet face up in line with the ball. The illustration typically shows this wasn’t a new idea and was tried back in the 1890’s. |
 |  | Wilson Javelin mid 1980’s A very interesting twin throat design. |
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| Epstein Sixty six Oval shape No idea about where it was made but the unusual racetrack oval shape makes it a little different. |
 |  | Danlo Looks mid 70’s like a Yonex 7500/8500. The racquet might be not that unusual but the spider web stringing is fabulous. |
 |  | Macgregor Bergelin Longstring German idea endorsed by Bjorn Borg’s coach Lennart Bergelin. Sold in the USA under license as the MacGregor Bergelin Longstring. Owners can string themselves and then adjust tension via a control system inside the handle. An allum key device connects into the butt cap allowing the owner to adjust tension at any point during a game. Racquet comes with a tension adjustment knob and stringing instructions. |
 |  | Spin G-300 USA & RoxPro Aust. Fancy stringing system with long vertical strings to improve sweet spot performance. Was not within ITF rules but may have received a positive ruling. Also produced a squash racquet with a similar design. Sold in Australia by Lewis Sports. |
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| The Handler Two handled racquet to pick up on the latest teaching techniques for double handed players. Much harder to volley and serve due to single hand play being off centre so you might want be a solid baseline player that can run to shots. This is just one of 3 different versions we have seen trying this concept. |
|  | Gauthier G of G Bridge design attempts to alter string tension at sweet spot. Very similar to the Spalding Powertech which has two bridges top and bottom. See below. |
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| Snauwaert Ellipse early 1990’s Tri shaft racquet like the Hazell Streamline. Head can be removed at the central shaft point but loathe to try this since this one is brand new. |
 | Snauwaert Ergonom 1984 Belgium Offset head to help players with a tendency to drop the racquet head to still keep the racquet in line with the flight of the ball. There are a stack of these on ebay and since no-one bought them most are new. If you find a used one it will become a bigger collectors item. Or, I suppose you could buy a new one and try it out for a season. The local tennis shop advises that being offset allows the string pattern to actually give a serve that extra bit of top spin for a great kicker. |
 |  | Lacoste Equijet mid 80’s Used by Guy Forget. No it isn’t sun damaged! Another interesting Lacoste design which aims to change the sweet spot via altered string tensions. It has a unique Vibration system in the butt cap which carried through to the Wilson T5000 model. |
 |  | Major Nazka 1990’s Retro design with vibration dampening system in the middle of the shaft. Graphics and shape are just great. |
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| Blackburne Double String Early 2000’s Racquet with two sets of strings about 2mm from the lip of the frame designed to reduce frame hits. The racquet warps when being strung due to the string pressures on one side and then reverts to shape as the second set is fitted. |
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| Spalding Powertech 80 Double Inverted Bridge.
Mid 1980’s made in Taiwan. |
 | Topway Hexangonal Very unusual shape made in Taiwan. |
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| Tretorn Speedgun (Concept racquet) 2005 Computers meet tennis. A string sensor picks up movement to determine shot speed to within +- 2.5kmh. Play a rally and see the last 10 shots on a screen built into the handle. Only 1000 made and never made it to market. A rare find indeed and a great brand name. |
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