Bosworth racquets is a brand made by the industry famous Bosworth family. They have specialized in stringing and customization for many top tennis pros.
Tennis pros like Rod Laver, Jimmy Connors, Stefan Edberg, Patrick Rafter, Pete Sampras, Monica Seles, Martina Hingis, and Andre Agassi have all used Bosworth racquet services at some point in their careers. But the one who is most connected to the Bosworth racquets and their unique shape and design is Ivan Lendl.
This is what Jay Bosworth writes on the official Bosworth website: “Ivan was an amazing talent who simply worked harder to perfect his skill than any player had before him. He demanded perfection in his game and his equipment. We developed racquets specifically made for him, working to maximize and enhance his strengths.”
The unique shape of Bosworth Racquets
I have never ever played with a Bosworth racquet so I can’t comment on the qualities, but just based on the endorsement from pros like Lendl and later on Stepanek, I would assume they’re good. In the picture above you can see Brad Gilbert’s personal Fox/Bosworth racquet (WB 210) with a “towel grip”. Gilbert’s strung specs: 85 sq in head size, 350 grams, 16×18 string pattern and grip 4.
Not sure you can order their racquets anymore (the website looks a bit dated), but if you find one used somewhere or already own one, I am curious to hear how it plays.
One of Lendl’s Bosworth custom made racquets have the following strung specs (he used in the US Open final 1987): 410 grams, 77 sq inch head size, 27 in length, 18×19 string pattern!
Interesting facts about Bosworth
Did you know that Bosworth designed the Isometric racquet shape? This was first used by Snauwaert and now by Yonex.
Ivan Lendl used an 8-knot stringing pattern (called the Lendl pattern) as in the picture above. The idea of the pattern is to give better comfort on off-center hits while retaining excellent control in the center of the string bed. The downside of this pattern is that you need to calculate string lengths, starting points, you might need to widen a few grommet holes, and this all adds up to you needing quite a bit more string.
A Bosworth customized racquet costs $399. This is how they motivate the cost, which, for a custom product, is not that high in my opinion. “An extravagance? Not for the service, the customization and craftsmanship that goes into your Bosworth Tennis racquet – and it’s a bargain compared to the tens of thousands of dollars that our top touring professional clients pay for services.”
What is the point of the Bosworth shape? I am not sure, but I would guess that it expands the sweet spot due to “no cut corners” which is common with the traditional racquet shape.
Kudos to the Bosworth family for thinking differently and being a real innovator and game-changer in the tennis industry.
3 comments
Hi Jonas,
I am pretty sure that in 1987 Lendl was still using the Kneissl mold of the White Star Pro, probably produced by Adidas by that time, which was then customized by Bosworth to change static weight and balance point. It has an egg shaped head that’s around 75 sq. in. Back in the day, they were advertised by Kneissl and Adidas as a +10% size over a traditional wood frame. Seeing that wood frames were around 68 sq. in., that’s how the 75 sq. in. came about. He played with this frame for the vast majority of his career, the exception being in Wimbledon 1985, where he tried playing a slightly larger Adidas GTX Mid-T (around 85 sq. in. – still customized by Bosworth), and then switched around 1991 for a Mizuno Type R with a 90 sq. in. head, which I believe was also customized by Bosworth.
He never played the Bosworth isometric frame during his pro career, but has been using it on Senior tournaments.
Yes, Lendl never played with Bosworth labeled frames during his pro-career but they did customize his Adidas and even Mizuno racquets. The Adidas GTX Pro-T he used in the US Open -87 was indeed “built” by Bosworth.
Not correct! Lendl played with the Fox Racket in late 1993 and in the beginning of 1994. Watch YouTube!