Princeton Prof Invents 'Perfect' Racket

Maybe Harvard can claim more Noble Prize recipients than any other university in the country, but the award for developing an item of "real value" may go to a Princeton professor-turned-inventor, creator of what he claims is the world's first "mathematically perfect" tennis racket.

"My doctor told me to give up tennis and to take up bridge," Princeton professor Enoch Durbin said, recalling his desperate bout with tennis elbow. But quitting proved unbearable for Durbin. Instead, he applied his knowledge of physics and mathematics, acquired during his 28 years as a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, to produce "The Durbin," a tennis racket aerodynamically designed to compensate for mis-hits and thereby guard against tennis elbow.

Durbin's goal was the relocation of the sweetspot, the area on the racket head that gives the player maximum hitting control. "Players using conventional rackets often miss the sweetspot located near the base of the racket, causing tennis elbow," he explained.

Durbin moved the sweetspot to the center of the racket head by removing excess weight, lengthening the vertical strings and adding two extra pounds of tension to them.

Bad Vibes

"The Durbin reduces the chances of tennis elbow by reducing the vibrations traveling up the arm as the racket meets the ball," he said, adding that the racket is more efficient than conventional rackets and improves control because players can find the sweetspot more easily. Durbin hopes to prevent mis-hits, a major cause and aggravator of his own ailment, tennis elbow.

Durbin believes his "thinking-man's racket" will become more popular once people are aware of its superiority over conventional rackets. So far, it hasn't produced a profit, even though "thinking men" have been forking over $210 for Durbin's graphic model in the eight months it's been on the market.

The Dartmouth men's tennis team because the first squad to adopt the black and orange racket (Princeton's colors), hoping to capitalize on its advantages in order to upend the probable Ivy League champs, Harvard or Princeton, with the Princetonian invention.

Princeton President William Bowan became the first college administrator to make the transition to the Durbin, while Harvard's President Bok has not acknowledged the Princeton professor's achievement. Bok succumbed to advanced tennis technology when he switched to the Prince Graphic, the first of the large-headed, large-sweetspot rackets, which has already been adopted by many top pros and whose retail cost is only slightly less prohibitive than the Durbin's.

Perhaps a match between the two presidents would reveal to the tennis community which is the best racket on the market.