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Wimbledon Tennis
An annual awakening
The UK tennis season officially gets
underway in April, but just as the US
Masters gets golfers out of their
armchairs and onto the golf course in
their thousands, tennis players in the
UK are awakened each year by the
arrival of Wimbledon fortnight. Robin
Barwick reports
T
here are three grades of amateur tennis player in the UK: the
hard core league stalwarts who wrap themselves up in multiple
layers to doggedly pound balls against a floodlit practice wall
in mid-winter; then there are the less obsessed yet still committed
players who start limbering up once British Summer Time has
commenced in March; and finally there is the rest, the more casual
majority who barely think twice about tennis until the last
week of June, but once the television cameras turn to
the short-cut grass, summer showers and a smiling Sue
Barker in London SW19, there comes a veritable
explosion of enthusiasm for tennis around the
nation. It’s like a hypnotic trigger. Tennis courts
throughout the UK are filled, supermarkets sell-out
of strawberries, and with a bit of luck, sports
retailers really start to see tennis rackets selling
through.
following the signing of Monfils we have brought out
“Wimbledon is a real focus for the whole of the UK the new racket early, and EXO
3
will be the main focus
tennis market,” says Stuart Preece, Wilson’s sales and for Prince as far as Wimbledon is concerned. So far the
marketing director. “For the fortnight after Wimbledon rackets have been received really well, not just in the UK
you can’t get on a tennis court and a lot of people buy but right across Europe.”
tennis rackets. It is great for the UK trade, and Wimbledon An evolution from the original O
3
range that Prince
is fantastic at attracting more people to the game. Long may introduced in 2005, The EXO
3
rackets feature an Energy Bridge
it continue.” and Energy Channel that suspend the string bed with a view to
The leading racket manufacturers jockey for on-court exposure providing an expanded sweet spot, greater stability, reduced
at Wimbledon through their contracted players intensely, and the vibration and greater spin. The EXO
3
Rebel as used by Monfils retails
2009 Championships, from June 22 to July 5, look delicately poised at the top-end price point of £180.
in the battle of the brands. In the men’s draw, ATP world number one Meeting Prince’s launch of the EXO3 head on, so to speak, is the
Rafael Nadal will be brandishing his Babolat racket, along with leading YouTek Speed range from Head, the Pro model of which Djokovic has
American Andy Roddick (ranked sixth at the time of writing), while been playing with since the beginning of the year. YouTek was launched
Nadal’s arch rival Roger Federer, the recently deposed world number to specialist retailers in April, with its general release rolling out in the
one, leads the Wilson contingent. It is also exciting times for Head, build-up to Wimbledon.
which has both the world number three, Novak Djokovic, and number “YouTek comes with new technology called ‘d3O’,” explains Dave
four, Andy Murray, in its stable, while Prince’s presence in the men’s Shaw, Head UK’s general manager. “The rackets are made from a ‘smart
games has received an intriguing boost by their signing of Frenchman material’ which means they can change format depending on what shot
Gael Monfils (ranked 10th). is being played. If a player is hitting a smash or a serve the shaft stiffens,
“We signed Monfils in time for the Australian Open, but his new but if a soft drop shot or a sliced backhand is being played then the
EXO
3
Rebel had a blank frame then,” starts Bob Johnson, sales and racket absorbs the ball. The shaft can switch between a stiff state and a
marketing director for Prince, with the new EXO
3
only reaching shops softer, more flexible state. It is similar technology to that which has been
in April. “We don’t normally launch new rackets in mid-season, but used in protective clothing and footballs.
12 SGB SPORTS APRIL 2009
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