As the story goes, Guga won the French Open in 1997 with Luxilon Big Banger ALU Power, and the rest is history. But, as I understand, Guga was not the only player who used poly at the 1997 French Open. Who were the other early adopters, and in what year did Guga himself switch to poly?
Also, Luxilon released BB ALU Power in 1994, and prior to that they released BB Original, in 1991. Was BB Original the first poly tennis string to become widely available? Were ATP players using BB Original between 1991 and 1994? Why did it take so long for ATP players to notice the benefits of poly strings and adopt the new technology? Why didn't players like Jim Courier and Andre Agassi get on board?
When Guga won the French in 1997, his strings were stenciled with the Luxilon logo. Perhaps other early adopters of poly can be identified this way.I haven't been able to find any photos from the 90's of other ATP pros with the Luxilon stencil. But I noticed that Thomas Muster had his strings stenciled with the Isospeed logo when he won the French Open in 1995. Was he using Isospeed poly?
Also, Luxilon released BB ALU Power in 1994, and prior to that they released BB Original, in 1991. Was BB Original the first poly tennis string to become widely available? Were ATP players using BB Original between 1991 and 1994? Why did it take so long for ATP players to notice the benefits of poly strings and adopt the new technology? Why didn't players like Jim Courier and Andre Agassi get on board?
When Guga won the French in 1997, his strings were stenciled with the Luxilon logo. Perhaps other early adopters of poly can be identified this way.I haven't been able to find any photos from the 90's of other ATP pros with the Luxilon stencil. But I noticed that Thomas Muster had his strings stenciled with the Isospeed logo when he won the French Open in 1995. Was he using Isospeed poly?