Prince Charming - The King of All Racquets?
March 7th 2008 00:48
I am the owner of two reasonably up-to-date tennis racquets, (Völkl C40s for anyone interested – my yellow bumblebees) and after a little hiatus from playing competition I decided I should have at least one of them restrung in anticipation of the competition I was about to “ace”. (My brother is borrowing my spare racquet, so so far I have not been able to have that one restrung.) So, after picking up the racquet, and in about my second match, I’m playing in a mixed doubles set, and on attempting to return a wide to the forehand serve - PING – such was the poor quality of my return that the ball clipped the top part of the racquet, not the “sweet spot” at all, and two of my brand new strings popped. (I’m not a tall person, and my racquet is slightly longer than normal too, so that just adds to the tragedy of the awful standard of my tennis at the time.) I was pretty unamused by this and had to borrow the spare of one of my team mates for the rest of the night – never fun when you’re actually trying to win. We lost that set, and lost on the night by 5 games.
I lamented this sad experience to a friend of ours, who happens to be the mother of a former professional player. She asked about my spare racquet situation and I relayed the fact I didn’t have my spare with me at the time. Before I knew what was going on, she’d offered me a hand-me-down Prince (one of her son’s), one of the first graphite racquets to be available in Australia, (back in about 1980, and retailing for around $400 if I remember correctly.) and the last one she had left. My jaw dropped when this pristine frame was pulled out of the cupboard – I wanted to kiss and hug it! What I neglected to mention before is that I was lucky enough to be given another of these Prince racquets, and I played with it for about 15 years – when I bought my bumblebees, although they’re quite nice to play with, I just LOVED that Prince and was very upset that it had to go to racquet heaven, and this only because the frame had finally cracked. I’m not a fan of wider bodied racquets, which many are these days, so this thin-bodied superstar was a gift from heaven, as far as I’m concerned.
Mission Restring
I presented the Prince to be restrung, and was immediately asked where it had come from – I named my source, and the people at the racquet shop offered to buy any more spare frames, but there aren’t any. I couldn’t believe the fuss this racquet was causing. When the guy saw the frame he even asked me if the racquet had had a paint job, and he couldn’t believe the condition it was in. He would buy any spare frames to place in a picture frame and keep.
On collecting the racquet, the man who restrung it went to great pains to let me know he’d restrung it in the most original way he knew, even down to the P emblem on the strings. “It’s like a classic car” was the man’s final comments on the racquet. It looks beautiful and I was chomping at the bit to have a hit with it, but I haven’t done that yet. Now I’m wondering if I should play with it at all! I had to play competition that evening, so I thought I should play with the racquet I’m now used to, and I did so, reluctantly. Happily, I managed not to break any more strings, and we won on the night. This weekend though, I intend to fire up the “classic” and give it a go – I’m sure it’ll purr, providing the standard of my tennis is OK.
I lamented this sad experience to a friend of ours, who happens to be the mother of a former professional player. She asked about my spare racquet situation and I relayed the fact I didn’t have my spare with me at the time. Before I knew what was going on, she’d offered me a hand-me-down Prince (one of her son’s), one of the first graphite racquets to be available in Australia, (back in about 1980, and retailing for around $400 if I remember correctly.) and the last one she had left. My jaw dropped when this pristine frame was pulled out of the cupboard – I wanted to kiss and hug it! What I neglected to mention before is that I was lucky enough to be given another of these Prince racquets, and I played with it for about 15 years – when I bought my bumblebees, although they’re quite nice to play with, I just LOVED that Prince and was very upset that it had to go to racquet heaven, and this only because the frame had finally cracked. I’m not a fan of wider bodied racquets, which many are these days, so this thin-bodied superstar was a gift from heaven, as far as I’m concerned.
Mission Restring
I presented the Prince to be restrung, and was immediately asked where it had come from – I named my source, and the people at the racquet shop offered to buy any more spare frames, but there aren’t any. I couldn’t believe the fuss this racquet was causing. When the guy saw the frame he even asked me if the racquet had had a paint job, and he couldn’t believe the condition it was in. He would buy any spare frames to place in a picture frame and keep.
On collecting the racquet, the man who restrung it went to great pains to let me know he’d restrung it in the most original way he knew, even down to the P emblem on the strings. “It’s like a classic car” was the man’s final comments on the racquet. It looks beautiful and I was chomping at the bit to have a hit with it, but I haven’t done that yet. Now I’m wondering if I should play with it at all! I had to play competition that evening, so I thought I should play with the racquet I’m now used to, and I did so, reluctantly. Happily, I managed not to break any more strings, and we won on the night. This weekend though, I intend to fire up the “classic” and give it a go – I’m sure it’ll purr, providing the standard of my tennis is OK.
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Comment by jon
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Thanks,
Jon.
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Five Passions - Cooking, Tennis, Taekwondo, Music and French