If you feel you have travelled a distance with the sport, watching from near or far, then inevitably part of your journey has been defined by Mr. Picture the angelic Wimbledon poet over the years or the early grand slam wizard (with ponytail and then floppy hair), the mid-career problem solver, the renaissance man in his mid-thirties shapeshifting into versions of himself that would have others speechless, still doing it, leaving a trail of perplexed opponents, in awe, reeling. In his multiple incarnations of a tennis player, the gift of artistry has been ever present. He defies the ageing process, has an unquenchable thirst for more and is still accruing fresh records as a king of longevity, far from diminishing, as lethal as ever he has been. Roger Federer is a law unto himself, know that much.
That best of friends from high school, automatically friends for life.īut that Pro Staff 85 is not my only friend for life because there was a new kid in town, the Wilson Clash, and we very quickly became friends.
A racket for those who know, for those who continued to invest time in that friendship long after it was left behind by so many for bigger, thicker, stiffer things. Add to that the addictive sensation when the ball collides with that matte black 16mm scalpel of a frame adorned with those thin yellow and red lines. Nothing has quite bettered it for hitting a tennis ball from point A to point B on a tennis court with supreme control over its journey. The friend Federer learned his craft with? For sure a reason.īut all those reasons have surely grown out of the real reason, which is this. Pros such as Evert, Edberg and Sampras immortalised in photographs holding its hand moments before holding trophies? Yep, that’s another reason. The nerdish mystique of the production run at Wilson’s old factory on St Vincent in the Caribbean? Yes, that’s one reason.
Why has the friendship endured for so many of us? Why do so many of us smile warmly to ourselves when we see one or pick one up? Why are some of us we still using one? Perhaps there are several reasons. Or was it holding our hand when we were break point down? I never quite worked that out. Tennis immortals relied on it in their hour of need, whilst us mere mortals held its hand on clay, grass and tarmac, creating our own inspired magic. It can still be seen hanging out with its many other friends at tennis clubs all over the world, at airports, on stringing machines, on social media. The Pro Staff 85, or 6.0 as it was later known, has made a lot of friends for life over the years. But my Pro Staff 85 is still around, reliable and trustworthy, growing old gracefully by my side. I’m talking tennis rackets here of course. I’ve loved them, lost them, fallen out with them, kissed and made up, sworn never to see them again. And like the line in that movie, we were automatically friends for life. I went to high school that same year with the Wilson Pro Staff 85 in my bag. There’s a line in the 1988 film Tequila Sunrise starring Mel Gibson and Michelle Pfeiffer that goes like this: “I don’t know what it is about going to high school with someone that makes you feel you’re automatically friends for life”.