Tennis Racquets: “Annihilation Arms”
The legendary sport of tennis began with racquets carefully carved out of wood. In today’s times, however, with an innumerable amount of sports companies producing all sorts of racquets, players have an assortment of racquets to choose from. The professionals usually “rock” the top of the line racquets. After all, what good is an unarmed man on a battlefield?
Known for manufacturing quality tennis racquets, the sports company, “Head” was created in Baltimore, Maryland. The man behind the idea, namely, Howard Head, was an aircraft engineer responsible for making the first ever metal ski. It wasn’t until the 1960’s that Howard formed a racquet department in the same company. Furthermore, Head created the first aluminium frame with the concept of ‘strengthening’ the racquet in mind.
Howard’s vision was brought to life in the form of an aluminium framed racquet. The racquets were used in the 1969 U.S. Open Championship. In the year 1997, Head developed the first graphite and titanium tennis racquets. That same year, Head also brought in three companies by the name of DACOR, BLAX and Penn.
Currently ranked no. 2 in the world, Serbia’s Novak Djokovic is a onetime grand slam winner who uses racquets from the same company. The sportsman was the first Serbian to win a grand slam title. Nole won the 2008 Australian Open against Frenchman, Jo-Wilfred Tsonga. France’s Tsonga lost 6-4, 4-6, 3-6 and 6-7 to Djokovic. Djoko plays with a Head “YOUTEK SPEED”. The racquet weighs 11.8 ounces and gives the player a sense of control as well as power simultaneously.
The French based sports company, “Babolat”, started off with producing racquet ‘strings’ back in the 1980’s. However, now the company is now known for producing branded tennis racquets along with all sorts of other tennis equipment. Frenchman Albert Babolat made the first racquet strings out of natural gut in 1875. Babolat racquets are popular internationally particularly in Europe and North America.
Amongst a number of tennis professionals, Rafael Nadal is endorsed by Babolat. Eight time grand slam winner Rafa has remained the world no. 1 at different stages in his career. The Spaniard has also won an Olympic gold medal in the Men’s singles tennis along with 18 Association of Tennis Professionals titles.
Recently, Nadal defeated Sweden’s Robin Soderling in straight sets to win the 2010 French Open Men’s singles final. Apart from that, the sportsman also bagged the 2010 Wimbledon Men’s singles final when Rafael eliminated Czech Republic’s Tomas Berdych three sets in a row.
Nadal plays with Babolat’s “Best seller”, namely an AeroPro Drive GT. Its Graphite Tungsten technology lets the player take complete charge. The solid racquet weighs 11.3 ounces and its head-size is 100 square ft. inches.
Chicago’s leading sports good company “Wilson” is based in Illinois. Schwarzchild and Sulzberger created a company that managed “meat” packing plants in the United States. Later, “Sulzberger and sons” started the Ashland Manufacturing company with the intent to use animal by products from their slaughterhouses in 1916. The company however ended up manufacturing ‘strings’ of all sorts along with surgical sutures. In 1931, the company’s former President, Thomas Wilson changed the name to the “Wilson Sporting Goods Company”. Wilson then started producing tennis racquets amongst other sporting goods.
Tennis Legend Pete Sampras from America used a Wilson ‘Kelver Pro Staff’ to make his 14 grand slam win record. Similarly, the man to have broken Sampras’ record, Switzerland’s Roger Federer used the same racquet for a period of time. Roger has collectively won 16 grand slam titles and has been ranked as the world no. 1 on more than one occasion.
The Swiss is presently using a Wilson “BLX Six.One” tour racquet. The racquet weighs a heavy 12.5 ounces and is slightly larger in size as it measures 90 sq. inches. It however, comes with a lot of control and is very stable.
The best names in tennis equipment including Head, Babolat, Wilson and Prince are all very competitive as far as endorsing the top seeds is concerned. However, one will hope that the companies will come out with even better racquets with advanced technology in the years to come.
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