Bjorn Borg racquets

gigo · Nov 13, 2017

Hello everyone, about a year ago i purchased my first wooden racquet for a wall decoration. Since then I felt in love with old/classic racquets. Currently, my main interest is Bjorn Borg endorsed racquets from Donnay and Bancroft ( with his name, face or signature on it ).
This is my collection so far. What other models are there? I know few others but would like to see some rare or not well known models. Post a picture if you have.
Thanks

max · Nov 15, 2017

Would be fun to have the Bancroft. I've got the very cool colored (yes, everyone thought it was cool) black with orange Donnay Borg Pro.

galain · Nov 15, 2017

I'm really curious - were there any other notable Donnay players before Borg? It seems the company lived and died with him.

Sanglier · Nov 15, 2017

galain said:
I'm really curious - were there any other notable Donnay players before Borg? It seems the company lived and died with him.

Rod Laver, Cliff Drysdale, Margaret Court, Fraçoise Durr, Tony Roche and others were all sponsored by Donnay at one time or another.

An argument can be made, and indeed was made by Michel Gilluy in his unpublished manuscript about the rise and fall of Donnay, that the company died in part BECAUSE it lived by Borg, not only due to the extreme cost of this sponsorship, but also because Borg's success and attachment to his wooden signature racquet led the company executives to neglect the development of their composite frames until it was way too late. In fact, when everyone else was switching quickly to graphite frames, Donnay was dumping an enormous amount of money to expand their wooden frame manufacturing facility. That, along with Donnay's unwillingness/inability to control their labor costs (though they eventually began outsourcing to Taiwan, almost as an afterthought) ultimately doomed their enterprise.

They were literally killed by their own success due to unfavorable timing!

BorgCash · Nov 16, 2017

gigo said:
Hello everyone, about a year ago i purchased my first wooden racquet for a wall decoration. Since then I felt in love with old/classic racquets. Currently, my main interest is Bjorn Borg endorsed racquets from Donnay and Bancroft ( with his name, face or signature on it ).
This is my collection so far. What other models are there? I know few others but would like to see some rare or not well known models. Post a picture if you have.
Thanks

Great collection.
Other composite racquets with Borg naming and signature that I have are: BB Graphite Club 25, Borg Ceramic. Both have his signature. First was issued around 1985, second later.
Good luck.

big ted · Nov 16, 2017

the borg pro midsize was a popular frame they marketed.. it was a monoshaft design with a bigger head. also you might want to look for the borg pro with the shortened grip length. Jimmy arias used it..

galain · Nov 17, 2017

Thank you Sanglier - interesting stuff. I know the wooden Donnays were used by a few more players than Borg, but at first thought, it really seemed to be one of those 'one player' companies (Adidas and Lendl, for eg, although quite a few European players also used Adidas).

Donnay's graphite frames - I could only name Vijay Amritraj and Agassi. Did Borg ever used one of his namesake graphite or composite frames?

BorgCash · Nov 17, 2017

galain said:
Thank you Sanglier - interesting stuff. I know the wooden Donnays were used by a few more players than Borg, but at first thought, it really seemed to be one of those 'one player' companies (Adidas and Lendl, for eg, although quite a few European players also used Adidas).

Donnay's graphite frames - I could only name Vijay Amritraj and Agassi. Did Borg ever used one of his namesake graphite or composite frames?

Anders Jarryd used Donnay Borg Pro.

vsbabolat · Nov 17, 2017

BorgCash said:
Anders Jarryd used Donnay Borg Pro.

He used the Borg Pro Midsize

BorgCash · Nov 17, 2017

vsbabolat said:
He used the Borg Pro Midsize

Like here:

BorgCash · Nov 17, 2017

Yes, the head is definitely bigger.

PSC85 · Nov 17, 2017

joe sch · Nov 18, 2017

Sanglier said:
Rod Laver, Cliff Drysdale, Margaret Court, Fraçoise Durr, Tony Roche and others were all sponsored by Donnay at one time or another.

An argument can be made, and indeed was made by Michel Gilluy in his unpublished manuscript about the rise and fall of Donnay, that the company died in part BECAUSE it lived by Borg, not only due to the extreme cost of this sponsorship, but also because Borg's success and attachment to his wooden signature racquet led the company executives to neglect the development of their composite frames until it was way too late. In fact, when everyone else was switching quickly to graphite frames, Donnay was dumping an enormous amount of money to expand their wooden frame manufacturing facility. That, along with Donnay's unwillingness/inability to control their labor costs (though they eventually began outsourcing to Taiwan, almost as an afterthought) ultimately doomed their enterprise.

They were literally killed by their own success due to unfavorable timing!

Agree and pretty much the same story for Bancroft. I did not like the Bancroft graphite rackets much either.
The Bancroft Borg personal is one of my favorite wood rackets, looks and plays great ! I especially like the protective coating on the beam which greatly decreased court rash ! The clear coating was superb over these black shaft beauties.

joe sch · Nov 18, 2017

vsbabolat said:
He used the Borg Pro Midsize

Yes IMO that racket really needed the midsize upgrade to increase the very small sweet spot.

gigo · Nov 18, 2017

Thank you all for the suggestions and interesting info.
How much bigger is the midsize compare to 69sq inch borg pro? Also, do you know if the allwood with donnay sign overlapping the red/orange graphics because of longer grip he played with ever made for public or just for personal use?

BorgCash · Nov 18, 2017

gigo said:
Thank you all for the suggestions and interesting info.
How much bigger is the midsize compare to 69sq inch borg pro? Also, do you know if the allwood with donnay sign overlapping the red/orange graphics because of longer grip he played with ever made for public or just for personal use?

That time midsize was 85 sq in

David Thomas · Nov 18, 2017

Great racket collection! You are missing the the Slazenger Challenge 1 rackets he used when he was a teenager. Watch the youtube video of him playing at Wimbledon in 1973 when he played with his Slazenger Challenge 1. Great vintage rackets from the early 70's. I played with them in my early teens. I found two of them on **** a few years ago and play with them when I go to the coast in the summer on the clay courts at Pismo Beach in California.

Puddy · Dec 1, 2017

joe sch said:
Yes IMO that racket really needed the midsize upgrade to increase the very small sweet spot.

Aloha Joe,

Perhaps share a pic of two of that Donnay Pro "Special" some guy found in Fiji? That is an extremelly rare gem in the Donnay Borg line for sure.

joe sch · Dec 2, 2017

Puddy said:
Aloha Joe,

Perhaps share a pic of two of that Donnay Pro "Special" some guy found in Fiji? That is an extremelly rare gem in the Donnay Borg line for sure.

Aloha Puddy, Here is that slightly diff "Pro" version:

DUROC · Dec 2, 2017

David Thomas said:
Great racket collection! You are missing the the Slazenger Challenge 1 rackets he used when he was a teenager. Watch the youtube video of him playing at Wimbledon in 1973 when he played with his Slazenger Challenge 1. Great vintage rackets from the early 70's. I played with them in my early teens. I found two of them on **** a few years ago and play with them when I go to the coast in the summer on the clay courts at Pismo Beach in California.

BB used the Slazenger thru 1975 when he signed with Donnay..........he used the diamant until the end of the year when he moved on to the Allwood.

WestboroChe · Dec 21, 2017

The graphics on those Donnay woodies are superb especially the Pro. Donnay apparently made a lot of money making racquets as a sub-contractor for Wilson. They made the most wooden racquets of anyone so it's not surprising that they tried to keep the train going. They might have been proved right. Perhaps the ITF would have banned graphite frames and they would have continued indefinitely. After all pro baseball players use wooden bats.

vsbabolat · Dec 21, 2017

WestboroChe said:
The graphics on those Donnay woodies are superb especially the Pro. Donnay apparently made a lot of money making racquets as a sub-contractor for Wilson. They made the most wooden racquets of anyone so it's not surprising that they tried to keep the train going. They might have been proved right. Perhaps the ITF would have banned graphite frames and they would have continued indefinitely. After all pro baseball players use wooden bats.

Tennis changed with Graphite

WestboroChe · Dec 21, 2017

vsbabolat said:
Tennis changed with Graphite

Yup. But Donnay might have hoped that the ITF might ban wooden racquets for pros or something. That might have happened but it was a long shot at best.

gigo · Feb 13, 2018

Couple of beauties added to the collection

retrowagen · Feb 13, 2018

I believe Jimmy Arias was also a Borg Pro player, who later switched over to the Pro Cynetic 1 (Pro Staff Midsize clone).

Nacho · Feb 13, 2018

gigo said:
Hello everyone, about a year ago i purchased my first wooden racquet for a wall decoration. Since then I felt in love with old/classic racquets. Currently, my main interest is Bjorn Borg endorsed racquets from Donnay and Bancroft ( with his name, face or signature on it ).
This is my collection so far. What other models are there? I know few others but would like to see some rare or not well known models. Post a picture if you have.
Thanks

Man, love the Donnay with the face! that is a classic!

Julianne · Jun 25, 2018

Does anyone know what kind of racquet this is?

Mom found it in the attic. She bought it when she were about 14 years old (around 1980)

joe sch · Jun 26, 2018

Its the Donnay Borg photo decal of Bjorn. There were a few diff variants, I have a few others. Maybe will post later ...

Julianne · Jun 26, 2018

joe sch said:
Its the Donnay Borg photo decal of Bjorn. There were a few diff variants, I have a few others. Maybe will post later ...

Thank you! I would love it if you had the time to do that

joe sch · Jun 26, 2018

Julianne said:
Thank you! I would love it if you had the time to do that

Here it is:

http://www.woodtennis.com/donnay/borg_face_donnay4.jpg

rodracquet · Jul 8, 2018

This has already been posted here but maybe the links are broken. Recently lucky to find this BORG GOLDEN WOOD model which features a full colour decal of Borg holding the Wimbledon trophy. The racket quality not so good which explains why they might be very hard to come by. This and the black and white photo version are the only 2 PHOTO versions I know of whereas the line illustration designs are more common.

justRick · Jul 8, 2018

vsbabolat said:
Tennis changed with Graphite

Now it's the string bed, so much power, spin, and control. I suspect tennis will have to regulate this at some point.

gigo · Jul 11, 2018

rodracquet said:
This has already been posted here but maybe the links are broken. Recently lucky to find this BORG GOLDEN WOOD model which features a full colour decal of Borg holding the Wimbledon trophy. The racket quality not so good which explains why they might be very hard to come by. This and the black and white photo version are the only 2 PHOTO versions I know of whereas the line illustration designs are more common.

Thanks for posting this. Never seen one like this before. There is another model I am aware with a photo on it.

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