Thoughts about Tennis Tradition...

[stotty]

I remember the Prince racket. All of a sudden people could volley where as they couldn't with traditional rackets. The Prince racket was the first taste of what technology could do, for the club player at least.

I started playing with wood and often reminisce about playing with wood. Would I like to back to wood? No chance. Bloody hard work playing with wood and only half the power. I started of life living in a one room bedsit. I now live in a four bedroomed house. I reminisce about the fun I had in my one-room apartment. Would I want to return? Not likely. Nostalgia is often best left where it is, in the past.

On balance the modern game is better and offers more. Clay court tennis is far more entertaining today than in the days of Borg and Vilas...slow rallies lasting forever. Slowing the grass at Wimblesdon has combated technology very effectively and the rallies are great.

However, there is no doubting the net game back then was far better - no contest.

Back in the days of Rosewall and Laver the serve was considered important, as it is now. But it wasn't the end if a player's serve wasn't a bullet. Rosewall couldn't serve, and it's doubtful he would have been able to serve any better today because his action and height would make that unlikely. He had a less than great forehand, too. The two major weapons of today's game, Rosewall was without. He wouldn't have survived today.

This does not hold for all players of course. Gonzales, Kramer, McEnroe, Hoad, Borg. I could see them all adapting and surviving in today's tennis.

I love retro tennis and defend it rigorously but on balance standards are higher today and the tennis better.

[gzhpcu]

Well, I went through about the same evolution. What I didn't like about the wooden rackets was the fact they were heavy, that I broke about 2 frames a year and that I had to string them with gut...

In fact, as soon as Lacoste came out with his metal racket, I immediately switched... (guess you would have thought I was cheating, huh? )

Never played with the Prince rackets, because I never liked the big size of them, though...

Am glad to be playing today with a Babolat AeroPro with luxilon strings...

[don_budge]

if that is true, then we need to roll back the technology a little bit to preserve SOME of the tradition of the game.

Thoughts?!
don

Well Don...I thought nobody would ever ask. Let's see where this leads us.

You are a little late there, Don. Where were you when the Prince was making her debut? I remember going to war with every player that used it against me in tournaments. I was on my way up. The racquets derailed me. I was livid. I thought they were cheating...not only me but the game herself. And she was my great love. I loved her with all my heart and soul. I wanted to kill them. All of them. In defense of her Tradition. There were too many. There was only me...but it made no difference, I didn't care. I stood up. To the machine!

Tradition? Forget about it. You are too late to be concerned with such trivia. In fact if you speak of such things you will have people calling you a "prisoner of your generation" and looking at you cross eyed. I hear the snickering. To which I say...phooey.

One of my last memories in competitive tennis was going three sets with three opponents with Princess racquets in one day, me and my Kramers...lost the third. I tried to scrape myself off the bed the next day. I lost toenails. I went down fighting. I realized a long time ago...the gig was up. Nobody cared. Not like I do...to this very day. They still don't. That was the day the music died. That was the day that Don Quixote died...again.