Almost 40 years ago, MacGregor, an American sporting goods company, known for golf, introduced the Bergelin Longstring Tennis Racquet to the U.S. market. The brainchild of a German aeronautics engineer Herwig Fischer, and endorsed by Lennart Bergelin, one-time Davis Cup winner and former coach of Bjorn Borg, the racquet promised to revolutionize tennis. It allowed players to change their tension on the fly, simply by adjusting a bolt at the butt cap. In a nutshell, it worked, however there was one small problem that led to its demise like a lead balloon, & that was its weight.
At that time tennis racquets were beginning to become significantly lighter than their predecessors, the Bergelin was simply too heavy to compete with other more maneuverable racquets, at 13 ounces. Almost every tennis retailer gave the Bergelin a shot, as the idea of adjustable tension was quite novel. Alas, it died a rather quick death, disappearing almost as quickly as it was introduced.
Fast forward to 2022 & newcomer to the tennis industry, Elevating Sports BV. of Holland has introduced a patented product aptly called Retenser, that can be fitted to almost any modern open throated tennis racquet, & which allows the racquet’s effective tension to be adjusted, again on the fly. Retenser, made entirely of a durable light weight plastic, takes the place of the racquet’s throat piece, and allows adjustment of the length of the center 4 or 6 main strings, which has an instantly noticeable effect on the way the racquet performs.
Retenser features available an adjustment range of +- 4.5 lbs, while Retenser Pro adds ranges of +-2.25 and +- 7 lbs, which are color coded. Retenser can vary the Power, & available Control & Spin. Having your racquet feel freshly strung racket longer, & having the ability to vary your racquets performance depending upon your opponent are major advantages provided by Retenser. It adds just 5-7 grams of weight, but close to the center of mass, thus the perceived weight, known as Swing Weight is minimally influenced.
Retenser is installed while the racquet is being strung. It does not suffer from any significant wear, and is thus semi-permanent, unless you decide to remove it. It can be moved to another compatible racquet at will during re-stringing. The installation of Retenser adds minimal time to the stringing process, which no doubt stringers will appreciate. Adjustment is easy & done with a supplied key. (Photo below.)
Retenser & Retenser Pro are available to fit both Top Centered & Bottom Centered Racquets. A Top Centered racquet will have 8 holes in its throat, while a Bottom Centered Racquet will have 6 holes. Retenser can be moved from racquet to racquet, as long as it has the same “Center” configuration.