Golden Age of Racquets

[jorel]

Would be the early 90's.... agree/disagree

So many classic/great frames came from that era. They still used Twaron back then. the real Braided Kevlar/Graphite. High Mod. Graphite (note: even though many racquets today say they use these technologies in the newer racquets... i think most will agree that they dont feel the same like the orignals back from the early 90's, which leads me to believe that the tech/material they use currently today is not the same as back then)

I think that most of the frames that the pros still use today came from that era (they just use pj now)

the fact is, to produce the same quality racquets today as back then would make frames cost about 2 -3 times what they cost now.... can you imagine paying $300-400 for a tennis racquet

just to name a few of these classics (these were all the originals )

St. Vincents, Head Pro Tour 630/280, Head Prestige, Revelation 200g, the Original Head Radicals, and probably tons others that I dont recall right now.

 

[dave333]

Depends on who your talking to. If you play a more classical style, yeah, these probably are your golden age of racquets.

But if you play an aggressive, power baseline game, racquets like the PD are far superior.

 

[LttlElvis]

Golden age of racquets to me was mid 70s to early 80s. These were some great racquets for the time.

Jack Kramer Autograph
Jack Kramer Pro Staff
Dunlop Maxply Forte
Bancroft Borg Pro
Bancroft Player's Special
Donnay Allwood
Head Vilas
Head Competition II
Head Pro
Wilson T2000
Chris Evert Autograph
Prince Classic
Prince Graphite
Tony Trabert C-6

 

[retrowagen]

Would be the early 90's.... agree/disagree

just to name a few of these classics (these were all the originals )

St. Vincents, Head Pro Tour 630/280, Head Prestige, Revelation 200g, the Original Head Radicals, and probably tons others that I dont recall right now.

These rackets, with the exception of the Revelation 200g Dunlop, actually originated in the 1980's...

 

[vsbabolat]

I also think the Golden Age of racquets was from the mid 70's to the mid 80's. You really had some amazing racquets that came out at that time. With a few from the early to mid 80's still being used today or the basis for a few of today's racquets.

 

[anirut]

I would think the Golden Age would be from mid 70's to as far as late 80's. After that period the manufacturers probably ran out of "true racket material and designs" and started selling rackets on marketing gimmicks.

Of course, only a few companies were serious enough after that period to innovate or manufacture some true Wtechnologically advanced" rackets, and not just marketing claims. One such manufacture is PK for the Kinetic tech.

 

[superstition]

The golden age ended with the demise of wood composites.

 

[JayxTheKoolest]

I think the golden age of rackets is now, look at how it they have evolved the game.

 

[lethalfang]

Golden Age of Tennis Racquets is when wood composite is being replaced by graphite composites.
All the change in the game in the past decade is minuscule comparing to the change induced by wood-to-graphite conversion.

 

[galain]

I agree with the others who said the Golden Age for racquets was the mid 70's to the mid-late 80's. As Lethalfang put it - that period was enormous for the amount of chnage that went on in such a short window. New designs, new materials, new technologies (all of them REAL, not marketing).

Multitudes of racquet companies each with their own unique take on things. You could move between companies and experience a genuine difference in feel. A great many frames these days have a generic quality to them irresepctive of where they were made.

I didn't recognise it at the time but in retrospect you could see that back then people didn't really know what to expect - but they were trying in a great variety of ways to produce better equipment. It was a very exciting time to be a tennis player.

 

[Rabbit]

I agree...late 70s to mid-late 80s. Today, the manufacturers basically clone whatever frame is popular. Best example of this practice today is the Pure Drive, every manufacturer has their "version" of one.

 

[Rasta]

Golden Age of Tennis Racquets is when wood composite is being replaced by graphite composites.
All the change in the game in the past decade is minuscule comparing to the change induced by wood-to-graphite conversion.

Agree completely with this post.

 

[theace21]

Nice list Elvis...I played with many of those...

 

[superstition]

I think the golden age of rackets is now, look at how it they have evolved the game.

We could evolve the game by using gas powered ball launchers, too. When you've decapitated your opponent, then you know you've won. We could evolve the game by having Chinese strippers pop out of cakes between sets, too.

Golden Age of Tennis Racquets is when wood composite is being replaced by graphite composites.
All the change in the game in the past decade is minuscule comparing to the change induced by wood-to-graphite conversion.

Change is not positive or negative by default. It's a common mistake to assume that if something changes, it's "evolving" toward a more perfect state.

In reality, there are drawbacks to everything, and there are serious drawbacks to current racquets. The injury problem in the WTA tour has been critical for years, and there are other problems as well.

 

[lethalfang]

Change is not positive or negative by default. It's a common mistake to assume that if something changes, it's "evolving" toward a more perfect state.

In reality, there are drawbacks to everything, and there are serious drawbacks to current racquets. The injury problem in the WTA tour has been critical for years, and there are other problems as well.

And the racquets are responsible for all the injuries? How?
Correlation does not equal causation.

 

[travlerajm]

I'd say that the golden age of racquets was the late '80s, because there was so much variation between models. It was a lot like the what the '50s were for autos. You could spot a racquet by it's shape from many courts away - today, if someone paints a PD red, you wouldn't know what racquet it was.

For example, Prince came out with the CTS line, which had a unique shape and unique playing characteristics. Wilson came out with the dual taper beams which were fat in the middle instead of the tip. Yonex came out with racquets that flexed in the throat, as well as the legendary Secret 04 that was stiff like today's game improvement racquets, but with the mass of a player's frame.

Then the Hammer line came out and gave people a completely different type of frame (most racquets today are copies of the original Hammer concept).

Head came out with the uniquely shaped Genesis line. It was a golden age of racquets because each shape played so uniquely. Now almost every frame is vanilla - I have to applaud Prince for coming out with the O3 line though.

 

[lethalfang]

^^^
I do not entirely disagree, but I'd say that's toward the end of the Golden Age. The late 70's to early 80's is definitely the start of the Golden Age. That's when drastic change in racquet technology has occurred, when wood had given way to graphite. Everything occurring in the late 80's are minor tinkering of the graphite racquets, e.g. minor composition in addition to graphite such as kevlar, ceramic, etc., among other rather minor experimentations.
By the 90's, however, most of what can be tried has already been tried. As a result, we see more marketing schemes rather than actual changes such as intelligence electric fiber, ncode, cortex, etc.

 

[travlerajm]

Well, I regret that I didn't get into tennis until the late '80s. If I had played in the '70s and early '80s, my view of the golden age might have been different.

And I woudl be a better player too!

 

[Steve Huff]

I agree with the 70's being the golden age of rackets. When Prince introduced the oversize racket, tennis began a downhill slide.

 

[Say Chi Sin Lo]

not really the early 90s... but Prince Precision Response Ti.!!!

I... LOVED that racquet