US OPEN TENNIS

At that time, he wore a white T-shirt, white shorts that came to well above his mid-thighs, white shoes and white knee socks. In his defense, he was (and still is) in very good shape, and he pulled off the look much better than most of his contemporaries could have. Of course, the crowing glory to his ensemble was his wooden, circa 1975 tennis racquet. Its wooden frame and small, ovular head were in marked contrast to my racquet’s metal frame and neon-colored polyester strings. However, that contrast now serves as an excellent example of the changes tennis racquets have undergone over the past few decades. Tennis racquets have, in one form or another, been around for hundreds of years. Up until the late 1960s, most tennis racquets were made of laminated wood. At that time, the first steel racquets were introduced and popularized by Jimmy Connors, a top American tennis player of the era. A few years later, aluminum construction came on the market, which allowed for racquets of much lig …