A tubular steel frame, wire anchors for the strings and a very small head. The racket Jimmy Connors played for some eighteen years.
Most of the rackets in our archive are made of wood. The Wilson T2000 is the one that broke the pattern, and it did it with a steel frame.
A Design by René Lacoste
The T2000 is based on a design by René Lacoste, the former champion, who had patented a metal racket in the 1950s. The problem with a steel tube was the strings: threaded through holes drilled in the frame, they rubbed against sharp edges and frayed. Lacoste’s answer was to loop the strings around wire anchors on the outside of the head instead. Wilson launched the racket in 1967 and produced it until 1984, according to the International Tennis Hall of Fame.
The Man Who Made It Famous
Jimmy Connors has said it took him months to master the T2000. The ATP describes it as a racket with a tiny head and a sweet spot the size of a pea. He stayed with it anyway, for some eighteen years.
In 1974 he won Wimbledon with it. A year later, in the 1975 final, he lost to Arthur Ashe, a player sponsored by Head.
Steel Against Wood
The racket defined Connors’s rivalries. Against Björn Borg, who played a wooden Donnay, it was wood against steel. Against John McEnroe, who moved from wood to graphite, he played two Wimbledon finals.
The Strings Inside the Steel
Even the most modern frame of its time carried a traditional string. The T2000 that Connors gave to the Hall of Fame, used at the 1983 US Open, is strung with clear natural gut. Gut never really left.
What to Look For
The T2000 sits in a particular place for collectors: part museum piece, part player-association object. Check the condition of the chrome plating, the wire anchors and the grip. A full identification guide, with era, construction and value ranges, is in our Wilson T2000 profile. And remember that professionals’ rackets were not always what they looked like: see Four Rackets That Weren’t What They Looked Like.
Want to start your own collection? Get the free collector’s guide. And if you want to see tennis the way Connors saw it, join the waiting list for The White Ball.
— The Editor, Court Privée
Leave a Reply