The Enduring Appeal of Vintage Tennis

Why the Racquets of Yesterday Still Captivate Us

There are some things in tennis that technology can unquestionably improve.

Today's racquets are lighter, stronger and infinitely more forgiving. Modern strings can produce spin that players a century ago could hardly have imagined. Even the way we train, dress and recover has been transformed by innovation.

And yet, put a beautifully worn vintage racquet in a room and watch what happens.

People pick it up.

They run their fingers along the frame. They study the faded lettering and worn leather grip. Players inevitably give it a little swing, as if trying to imagine what it would feel like to hit a forehand with a head barely larger than their hand.

That's the enduring appeal of vintage tennis.

These aren't simply obsolete pieces of sporting equipment. They're tangible reminders of the people, craftsmanship and changing ideas that shaped the game we still love today.

The Racquets That Started It

My own collection began almost accidentally.

Years ago, someone who knew how much I loved tennis began setting aside vintage racquets they came across for me. There was no grand plan behind it. I simply loved them.

But the more I looked at them, the more curious I became.

Why was this one shaped differently? Who was the name printed across the throat? Why did one company laminate its wood one way while another experimented with an entirely different material?

And, inevitably: Who played with this racquet before it found its way to me?

That curiosity eventually became part of the inspiration for Tennis DuJour.

Today, I search for vintage tennis pieces in all sorts of places—estate sales, antique shops, auctions, markets and through collectors. Some are historically significant. Others are simply beautiful. I don't expect them to be pristine; often, the evidence that they were actually played with is what makes them interesting.

Over time, what started as an appreciation became something of a mission: find these pieces, learn their stories and give them another chapter.

A Game You Can Trace Through Its Racquets

Spend enough time around old tennis racquets and you realize you're looking at a timeline of the sport.

One of the oldest names represented in the Tennis DuJour collection is Wright & Ditson, an important American sporting-goods maker whose history reaches back to the 19th century.

A Wright & Ditson wooden racquet looks almost impossibly delicate beside today's oversized graphite frames. But that's precisely what makes it compelling. The slender wooden construction, long handle and traditional oval head represent an era when equipment demanded extraordinary precision from the player.

Our Wright & Ditson Championship is a reminder that the history of tennis in America stretches back far beyond the Open Era. Another Wright & Ditson piece in the collection, with its distinctive green throat detailing, shows how manufacturers also used beautiful graphics and finishes to give their racquets identity long before modern sports branding existed.

Then there's one of the most fascinating pieces we've found: a New Dayton racquet associated with the Dayton Steel Racquet Company.

At first glance, it almost looks like a contradiction.

Vintage tennis means wood, doesn't it?

Not entirely.

Manufacturers were experimenting with alternatives to traditional wooden construction much earlier than many of us realize. The Dayton racquet is a wonderful reminder that innovation in tennis equipment didn't begin with the graphite revolution. Players and manufacturers had been searching for different ways to build a better racquet for generations.

Put the Dayton beside a traditional Wright & Ditson and suddenly you're not just looking at two old racquets.

You're looking at two different ideas about what a tennis racquet could be.

From Wood to a New Era

Jump forward several decades and that experimentation becomes even more apparent.

The TAD Davis Imperial Deluxe represents another side of vintage racquet making: beautifully crafted wood elevated almost to a luxury object. Davis racquets became known for their quality woods, elegant laminations and meticulous construction. Even today, there's something particularly handsome about them.

Then tennis equipment began changing quickly.

The Rossignol F200 in our collection could hardly look more different from those early wooden frames. Made in France and emerging during tennis's transition toward composite construction, its unconventional shape and distinctive bridge immediately announce that you're looking at a new era.

Famously associated with Ivan Lendl, the F200 represents a moment when racquet design was becoming increasingly experimental—and when the silhouettes we associate with modern tennis were beginning to emerge.

Nearby might sit a Bancroft Björn Borg. Its graphics immediately transport you to the tennis boom of the 1970s, when champions weren't merely athletes; they were cultural figures. Borg's name on a racquet connected an everyday player to Wimbledon, Centre Court and one of the sport's defining stars.

Each tells a different story.

Together, they tell the story of tennis.

The Details I Love Most

The famous names are fun. The history is fascinating.

But often it's the smaller things that make me fall for a racquet.

An original cover in an unexpectedly wonderful color.

A manufacturer's logo that disappeared decades ago.

A beautifully aged leather grip.

A name written carefully on the frame by the person who once owned it.

Wear around the racquet head that tells you this wasn't something sitting untouched in a closet.

It was played.

Those imperfections are part of the provenance—even when we'll never know exactly where a racquet has been.

That's also what makes sourcing vintage pieces so different from ordering new merchandise for Tennis DuJour. I can't simply reorder another one. When an interesting racquet appears, I have to decide whether there's something about it worth preserving.

Sometimes the answer is obvious.

Why Vintage Tennis Endures

Perhaps that's what I've come to love most about collecting these pieces.

Tennis changes constantly.

Racquets change. Fashion changes. Champions come and go. The way the game is played evolves.

But the essential experience is remarkably familiar.

Someone holding that Wright & Ditson was trying to find the sweet spot.

Someone carrying the Dayton onto a court wanted to see whether new technology might improve their game.

Someone who bought a Björn Borg racquet probably hoped—at least a little—that it might make them play like Borg.

And somewhere, decades from now, someone may pick up one of today's racquets and wonder about us.

That's why I don't see the pieces in the Tennis DuJour Vintage Collection simply as old racquets.

They're chapters in one very long story.

We're just lucky enough to hold onto them for a while.

A Note from Melissa

I've loved tennis since I was about ten years old, and the game has followed me through nearly every season of my life.

When those first vintage racquets began finding their way to me, I wasn't thinking about becoming a collector, much less building a business around tennis. I simply loved seeing them.

Eventually I realized why.

They made the history of a game I already loved feel personal.

Today, I still get that little spark when I come across an unusual racquet or a fantastic old cover. I want to know what it is, when it was made and what was happening in tennis when someone first carried it onto a court.

That's a big part of what I want Tennis DuJour to be: a place that celebrates not only playing tennis, but everything that makes us love the game—its history, beauty, personalities, traditions and stories.

And if one of these old racquets finds its way from our collection into your home, I hope you'll wonder about the person who held it before you.

Then give it a story of your own.

— Melissa Brady
Founder, Tennis DuJour