Spaghetti Stringing

A friend of WhatsAllTheRacquet contacted us, asking us if we could find some information about "spaghetti stringing." To be honest, we'd never heard of it, but what an interesting learning experience it has been. Who would have thought that strining such as this would have been legal at all, but it was, much to the chagrin of many players, pro and otherwise. Thank you, Fabio, for the question, we hope to hear more from you.

From the ITF website:
According to the Rules of Tennis, "the hitting surface of the racket shall be flat and consist of a pattern of crossed strings connected to a frame and alternately interlaced or bonded where they cross". This tends to limit the movement between strings and, thus, the spin imparted to the ball. This rule was introduced in 1978 in response to a stringing system patented the previous year (US Patent 4273331, 8 December 1977) which could generate almost twice as much spin as a conventionally-strung racket, dubbed 'spaghetti' stringing. Spaghetti stringing is illegal because the main and cross strings are not interlaced (or bonded). Instead, the strings lie on parallel planes and are able to move with the aid of tubular sleeves, which act as bearings, see below. The freedom of movement allows the strings to deflect within the plane of the hitting surface and so rotate the ball as they recoil. The result is that players can produce extreme spin with minimal effort.

From the Get Charged website:

The spaghetti racket scandal began in May of 1977 when the Swiss Tennis Federation (STF) inquired of the ITF as to the legality of the unusual racket. When a 40 year-old Australian, Barry Phillips-Moore, well past his tennis prime, made it to the round of 16 at the Belgium Open in 1977 with the spaghetti strings, the innovation and not Phillips-Moore’s talents were cited as the reason for his success. Similar success stories, such as Georges Goven reaching the French Open semifinals, led to the STF prohibiting the racket at its closed tournaments, players refusing to compete against the technology, increasing vocal and public concern, and the ITF evaluating racket technology.

The controversial technology was the brainchild of a German horticulturist, Werner Fischer. While a double-strung racket simply meant that two sets of strings passed through a single hole, the Fischer system was more revolutionary. Fischer’s racket had three planes of non-intersecting strings with only five or six cross strings. With fewer cross strings, the main strings held the ball on the strings longer allowing a player to impart more spin on the ball. Additionally, to prevent the strings from sliding and breaking, a system of knots and plastic tubing protected them. This plastic tubing led to the racket’s nickname: the “spaghetti racket.” Fischer experimented with a double-strung racket system in Germany in the early 1970s and provided rackets to a struggling German tennis club. Within three years the club emerged on the top level of competition after playing for years on levels three and four. Fischer was not, however, a marketing and sales genius, and thus the racket technology remained within German clubs until 1977. In the summer of 1977 Fischer entered into an agreement with Gunter Harz, whereby Harz was to get professional tennis players to use the racket and build an international sales network.

The double strung racket, or the spaghetti racket, had two planes of non-intersecting strings and on the strings was a plastic coating to reduce breakage. This stringing system held the ball on the strings longer, transforming a typical topspin stroke into an unreturnable shot. This seemingly simple design created uproar as low ranked professionals using this racket were victorious over top-ranked pros. The upsets on the court sent the tennis executives into a flurry of discussion focused on what to do about the new technology that technically was legal but was causing such a disruption.

A few professional players did successfully use the racket, leading to its banishment. Despite unexpected victories in Europe by “humdrum” touring pros, Barry Phillips-Moore, Georges Goven, and Erwin Muller, not until the world witnessed its power at the US Open, did the ITF’s concern turn to panic. At the September tournament, Michael Fischbach, ranking below the top 100 players, beat two top professionals, Billy Martin and Stan Smith. The upsets continued as Ilie Nastase fell victim to Goven’s racket in a Paris tournament, and vowed to never again compete against one. True to his word, the last week in September, at the Aix-en-Provence tournament, Nastase did not compete against one, but brandished the racket himself, and watched an infuriated Guillermo Vilas, storm off the court, ending Vilas’ fifty match win streak.

July 12, 2005

Spaghetti Stringing