When we are (happily) on the rope

One thousand four hundred rackets, an expanse as thick as the sunflowers curving down the road from Turin to Baldissero d'Alba on a beautiful September morning. It is here, in a farmhouse in this village in the province of Cuneo, in the Roero region, that the journey through time of tennis begins: dozens of rackets are arranged on the walls or dangle from the ceiling, or embellish panels with the faces of players who have made history, or are preserved in glass cases, sheltered from their fragility.In this museum - which, for a fan of the sport of the moment, is a place to enter and never leave - there is something for everyone: for the 'pathological' savants who can make a master of numbers and data à la Rino Tommasi pale in comparison, and for the more unconscious who would not distinguish a wooden Maxima from a graphite one. If you look at them while listening to the story of the man behind it all, Paolo Bertolino from Turin, the temptation to pick one up, stroke it and see yourself on the pitch is concrete. The setting lends itself: the high vaults, the silence of a temple, all around the rarefied air of calm and apparently motionless places. Here are kept objects that Bertolino, a stringer for thirty years in a shop near Turin's Sporting Club, and a connoisseur like few of the secrets of tennis, has been patiently collecting since September 2017, scouring the markets, monitoring sites, benefiting from donations from friends (and others) who would arrive with a surprise for him, in some cases even just to display while retaining ownership. As in the case of a Puma made by Head at the request of Boris Becker, complete with the German champion's signature, preserved in a walnut-root box like the most precious of Stradivarius.

But the journey, it was said, is through time, and starts from an era that even anticipates tennis as we know it, 'that is, from when Lord Wingfield put a net, a racket, balls, chalk and a booklet with the rules of the game in a trunk and sent it to all the regions of the Commonwealth: it was the year 1874,' Bertolino recounts. On the wall, in fact, the oldest piece bears the date 1820, and is the forerunner of the wooden racquets, with a scuzzy shape and strings still in excellent condition. From there begins a parade of drums and frames, the platters of which are often imprisoned by a press (otherwise the wood would bend over time), as they were preserved back then. Then all of a sudden... a Dunlop Maxply, the very one used by the strongest, from Laver to Nastase, from Panatta to Lendl, the most produced and most sold in the history of tennis for fifty years, from 1928 to 1978. An icon that seemed immortal, yet even for those ovals - they look so small today, how on earth did they play? - have faded away, replaced at the turn of the 1980s by instruments made of new materials. To tell the truth, René Lacoste had already produced an earlier model in chrome molybdenum steel with suspension stringing (i.e. without the holes for string insertion, which would have weakened the structure): it made the racket more powerful and stable, but was soon supplanted by lighter models. A revolution that wore off in a few years thanks to carbon fibre, while the stringbed got bigger (going from the 65 inches of the wooden ones to around 100 today).

But here we are approaching, on the exhibition tour, the all-time greats. How many did Connors get up to, with the Wilson T2000? The range is wide, from Borg and his Donnay to McEnroe and the Dunlop, from Agassi (also a Donnay and then Head) to Wilander and the Rossignol, right up to the big three who dominated tennis for twenty years, Federer with the Wilson, Nadal with the Babolat and Djokovic (the only one still active) with the Head Speed Pro. What would they have been without their racquets? There is no sport in which the tool for an athlete is more decisive and at the same time, Bertolino observes, representative. In the museum - which has attracted visitors from Rome, Venice, Latina and even England - there are amusing gems, equipment found in street markets where the sellers were totally unaware of what they were selling for a few euros, such as Sampras' Wilson Pro Staff Original St Vincent ('When I saw it in a corner I couldn't believe my eyes,' Bertolino gloats, recalling the scene and the 'bargain': seven euros). Or like the detachable Pirelli Technort, produced in 1988 in a limited edition, in two models, and given as an accessory to off-the-shelf cars for one and a half million lire: an elegant black leather case contains pieces that assemble to form a very elegant racket. The point is, of course, to have the knowledge and the ability to recognise a piece that is valuable, its history, its authenticity. Which is not for everyone. But it doesn't end there.

The racket museum is mobile, too. In the sense that it is possible to set up exhibitions outside Baldissero d'Alba, selecting the most valuable or functional pieces for the type of event in which they could be displayed. Last year there was an exhibition on the occasion of the Atp Finals in Turin, at the State Archives, and in all probability another one will be organised this year. Last July a selection of rackets landed in London, at the Italian Chamber of Commerce, on the occasion of Wimbledon: the ones used by those who won the trophy most times on grass, in the men's and women's tournaments, were favoured, presented on panels with all the information about the tennis players and what is basically 'the extension of their arm'. There is no shortage of events organised for anniversaries, celebrations in clubs, a passion that is spreading and growing. After all, Italian tennis is experiencing its golden moment, it has been expected for fifty years, since the days of the dream team of Panatta, Bertolucci, Barazzutti and Zugarelli with their wooden rackets, led by captain Pietrangeli to victory in Chile in '76.

And after the Us Open final (Sinner-Alcaraz again)... who knows, maybe the racket museum won't go there one day. Better yet, who knows, maybe it won't make its Grand Slam.