The Wilson T-2000 – Legendary Racquets #3
Some tennis racquets are memorable, some stick in the mind. Only a few are truly iconic.
In episode #3 of a special new series, Legendary Racquets, Seb Proisy looks back at one of the most famous racquets of all time; the Wilson T-2000.
This racquet, which bridged the gap between wooden racquets and the eventual domination of graphite, was used by the great Billie Jean King and most famously of all, by Jimmy Connors.
Released by Wilson in 1967 but designed in 1953 by the legendary French player Rene Lacoste, the T-2000 was made from stainless steel racquet and had a head size of 67 square inches, weighing in at 385 grams strung, with a balance point of 34 centimetres and a string pattern of 18 by 18.
It took Lacoste eight years to obtain a patent for the T-2000 and two years later, Pierre Darmon of France was the first player ever to use it in a Grand Slam, at Wimbledon in 1963. Its increased head size offered more power and more control than its wooden rivals.
King made the Wilson T-2000 famous in 1967 when she won the US Open and Connors began playing with the T-2000 when he was still a teenager. With his trusted sword, Connors won his first Grand Slam title in 1974 at the Australian Open and two more the same year, at Wimbledon and the US Open.
Overall, Connors won eight Grand Slam titles, all with the Wilson T-2000. As a matter of fact he liked his racquet so much that when Wilson stopped manufacturing it, Connors started stockpiling all the ones he could get his hands on and supposedly posted some advert in a tennis magazine to find models of his racquet.
And Connors loved the T-2000 so much that even after Wilson made a special Pro-Staff racquet for him at the end of 1983, he switched back to his old T-2000 for the whole of 1985. The American finally said goodbye to the T-2000 in 1987.
Remember that Connors still holds the record for most tournaments won with 109 titles, beating a certain Roger Federer, who “only” has 103.