Historic Spaghetti Strung Tennis rackets

Historic Spaghetti Strung Tennis rackets
Werner Fischer spaghetti strung tennis racket
email: joesch@woodtennis.com

Greeting tennis players and collectors.
This page provides information on the spaghetti strung tennis rackets.
Email to request info or make an offer for any of these rare tennis rackets (may or maynot be available).

Below pictures show an original Kuebler Mark 77 and Plus 40 models shown with Adidas and Snauwaert variants.
The Mark 77 was actually strung by fischer himself and not a copy cat model. Kuebler supplied the racquets.
Spaghetti rackets are scarce and depending on the model and stringing job (classic or modern copy) are very valuable.

ORIGINAL KUEBLER GERMANY MARK 77 ALUMINIUM RACQUET

Snauwaert Ergonom spaghetti stringing job

Why should the strings yield and flick back only in the direction of the ball ?
Why not in a perpendicular direction when the ball is hit and the racket moves form down upwards ?

As a result, Fischer experimented with double stringing rackets and using additional sting movement and griping enhancements like tubes. These rackets became famous and popular pretty quickly because of the unbelieveable spin produced and they were later referred to as "Vilsbiburger" or "Spaghetti" stringing.

Fischer and a few other players using these rackets started winning lots more tennis matches and causing quite alot of worry in the tennis tours. As a result, the International Tennis Federation, well aware of the danger facing the traditional tennis game, intervened in 1978 and banned all kind of double stringing.

These string jobs are works of art, especially to the professional stringers since even experience veterans needed hours to string a racket. The special materials required, strings, special cements, nylon tubes and robes, which are not available today.

The Werner Fischer Vilsbiburger "SPAGHETTI" stringing pattern became so controversial it was banned with 18 months because several other players started using spaghetti stringing jobs including Aussie Barry Phillips Moore and Ille Nastase. After Nastase defeated Vilas and broke his incredible winning streak, the racket was banned for tournament play and then became tennis history.

More details on this historic match that led to ban of spaghetti stringing:

October 1977 by Ilie Nastase in the final of the Aix-en-Provence tournament. In that best of five-set final, Vilas dropped the first two sets by 6-1, 7-5 and then retired in protest of Nastase use of a spaghetti strung racket (which was banned by the ATP in 1978).

Click for more info on the famous Vilas winning streak ...

Watch some of the 1977 Nastase vs Vilas tennis match at the below youtube link:

Click for 1977 Nastase vs Vilas YouTube tennis match...

According to the book ''Bud Collin's Total Tennis'', the ITF temporary ban of the ''spaghetti''-strung racket went into effect on October 2, 1977, the day that Nastase defeated Vilas (6-1, 7-5 Retired) in the finals of the Aix-en-Provence tournament using that racket. The permanent ban of that racket went into effect in June 1978. Mike Fishbach upset Stan Smith at the 1977 US Open using a spaghetti-strung racket.

Stringing Wood Tennis Rackets ...

Click for instructions to string wood tennis rackets .

Spaghetti Stringing of Tennis Rackets (pic links above)

Spaghetti strung Wilson T2000 using the original Fischer prototype model. This spaghetti stringing artwork uses a new vintage T2000, rather than the original aluminum tennis racket frame. The strings were also modified to use 2 different variants of kevlar and a blue synthetic gut mix. These Fishcer prototype model variations were chosen to make that stringing job more enduring and to also be more cosmetically appealing. The basic goal was to reproduce this famous historical tennis racket and to insure that this extremely labor intensive job would last as long as possible. The master stringer who created this racket artwork is Steve Huff who has been stringing rackets since the woody tennis era and is well known in stringing circles :)

The first "spaghetti strung" tennis racket was created by a German named Werner Fischer. Fischer was a from the small town of Vilsbiburg in Bavaria, Germany. This odd racket stringing idea occurred to Fishcer in 1971 during a tennis match, he wondered :
- why should the strings yield and flick back only in the direction of the ball ?
- why not in a perpendicular direction when the ball is hit and the racket moves form down upwards ?
As a result, Fischer experimented with double stringing rackets and using additional sting movement and griping enhancements like tubes. These rackets became famous and popular pretty quickly because of the unbelieveable spin produced and they were later referred to as "Vilsbiburger" or "Spaghetti" stringing.

References:
Click for info on stringing wood tennis rackets ...
Click for Werner Fischer double stringing patent ...
Click for Double Stringing "Spaghetti" Article Page 1...
Click for Double Stringing "Spaghetti" Article Page 2...
Click for Double Stringing "Spaghetti" Article Page 3...
Click for Double Stringing "Spaghetti" Article Page 4...

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Last update 1/2015