Tennis: Metallic Step Farther

With new scoring systems, new synthetic playing surfaces and competition between amateurs and pros, tennis seems to have entered a long-overdue era of change. Last year even the tennis racket itself took on a new look with the T2000 steel racket, designed by France's René ("the Crocodile") Lacoste and marketed in the U.S. by the Wilson Sporting Goods Co. Now A. G.

Like the steel racket, "the Smasher," as Spalding calls it, is open-throated to cut wind resistance, increase the speed and power of a player's swing. Unlike the T2000, which has its...

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