VilasEng

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© Copyright 2020
by
Siegfried Kuebler
Zur Grundel 18
D 88662 Überlingen

Comments on Puma G. Vilas Power Racket
It was another day that I should take a walk since the
weather is nice and I need exercise at my age. This is what
my friend Rolf recommends me, but also my wife Regine.
I came back out of breath. There are 54 steps up to my
office in our house, including the stairs in the garden. They
were still ahead of me. I came to the lower entrance and
opened the door. Closing it produced a rich sound. Yes,
this is a security door, installed two years ago. The burglars
would bite their teeth if they tried it. However, around
the house were easier ways.
About 20 vintage tennis rackets are exhibited on the wall
to the left. With appropriate explanations. They are very
special because they are rackets from former world-class
players, some of which even have their signature, either
on the frame or on the wrapping leather of the handle.
Well-known names are included. Michael Stich, Steffi Graf,
Boris Becker, Claudia Kohde Kilsch, Harold Salomon, Björn
Borg. However, who still remembers Steeb? Wasn’t his
first name Charlie? Do you remember Evonne Goolagong?
One of the rackets had come off the wall and was lying
on the floor. I picked it up and wanted to put it back again.
Then I saw its inscription. Puma PCS racket, G. Vilas Power.
Memories came up. Günter Adam had developed that
racket. I still remembered, I think it was in autumn 1983,
when he stood in front of my little factory in Singen. Here
we made the Kuebler rackets. I knew him from the Ispo
sporting goods fair in Munich. He was the leading development
engineer at the Völkl Company, which made tennis
rackets and skis very successfully. What did he want from
me?

He quickly came out with the language. He invented a
racket, the length of which to be easily changed by turning
a screw at the end of the handle. This allows any player to
change the rackets playing characteristics. Longer means
more power, less feeling.
Of course, this thought was not new. How many inventors
have let off steam? I have to admit that we also built
such test rackets. We failed because the adjustment worked,
but without tightening additional screws on the handle,
crackling noises repeatedly occurred when the racket
met the ball, which of course no player would tolerate.
„Would you make and distribute this racket for me according
to my preregistered patent? „
His offer came as a surprise. Why did not Völkl want to
build this racket itself? My opinion was at that time: the
Patent Office would possibly not grant his application owing
to lack of inventiveness.
I explained to him our own test results and politely declined.
In retrospect, this decision was the right one, as it
would show later. He continued to pull his strings and
ended up at the Puma Company, which had not yet been
active in the tennis business, although its fierce competitor
Adidas already made and sold rackets.
Puma got on with enthusiasm. In-house production was
set up. The racket became a hit because G. Vilas was fond
of it and could be won as the top player of the world. Lefthanded,
born in 1952, then just over 30 years old. At the
age of 21, he had already played his first Grand Prix tournament
in Buenos Aires. In his career, he should win 62
titles. These included the French-, the US- and the Australia
Open. Until 1977, Vilas remained undefeated in 46 games
in a row. The undisputed No. 1. The winning streak ended

in the final of the Aix-en-Provence tournament, when Vilas
gave up against Ilie Nastase (then outsider against Vilas).
Nastase competed in the final with the so-called spaghetti
stringing on an Adidas Nastase Professional Racket,
banned by the International Tennis Federation immediately
after this tournament at the behest of Ion Tiriac. After
two lost sets, Vilas gave up, exasperated by the uncontrolled
bouncing of the ball. Nastase thus secured the trophy.
Vilas, angry after the game, snorted; „I didn’t lose against
Nastase, but against a racket with this crazy spaghetti stringing!
„
With this innovative double stringing, as it was later also
called, the ball got an incredible spin. When jumping off
the ground, the ball’s trajectory had mostly become unpredictable.
Vilas could not cope with that.
However, back to Puma. The G. Vilas Power Racket was
born. As a young man, Boris followed his idol Vilas and
used this racket.
He remained loyal to it until the end of his career. The
Puma Boris Becker Winner joined the G. Vilas Power. Do you
remember? Red in the upper part, lower part up to the
handle dark blue?
Nevertheless, Puma’s initial enthusiasm should not last
long. Of the 200,000 rackets, that were allegedly manufactured
and sold, half are said to have come back as a complaint,
because of noises in the handle when hitting a ball. I
was afraid of this from the start and was happy about my
rejection at the time. This would have ruined my Company.
Puma was unable to solve the problem satisfactorily.
After a few years, Puma stopped manufacturing and sel-

ling rackets. A short, loss-making trip to the tennis racket
business, which is characterized by fierce competition.
In addition, the G. Vilas racket and the Boris racket that
the two used. Did not they make any noise when hitting
the ball? A liquid two-component resin was injected into
the interstices of the handle scales, so that the adjustability
of the length was cancelled. The PCS (Power Control System),
heavily propagated, had died.
Vilas had strongly influenced the tennis world through
his game, his personality and his appearance in colorful
sports clothing (at that time white was more popular). Long
hair under a headband, figure-hugging clothes and topspin
strokes. Does that sound like Bjorn Borg? Right. Also
a poet who attracted attention in Argentina with a book of
poems and became the pioneer of the wonder weapon
Topspin, which at the time only Borg could take on.
Vilas won the Romanian Ion Tiriac as his manager. Vilas
became a champion. As for his rackets, he was not as consistent
as other world-class players like Boris, Edberg or
Sampras, just to name a few. So at the beginning of his
career he played with the Wilson Jack Kramer Autograph,
followed by the HEAD Vilas (similar or even identical to
the HEAD Royal in Europe and HEAD XRC in the USA),
then the Slazenger Vilas International and Slazenger V-24,
and finally the Puma G. Vilas. The decisive factor for the
switch from Slazenger to Puma was a tournament in Las
Vegas 1984/85), which he won with the Puma G. Vilas Power
Racket.
I am still holding the G. Vilas Power in my hand that had
dropped. Vilas had scribbled his name on the side and is
said to have played this racket at the World Team Cup in
Düsseldorf in 1987.
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How did I get this racket? At that time Siegfried Schwank
was a well-known stringer and attended many international
tournaments with his service. He was Steffi Graf‘s favourite
stringer for her the rackets and for many other
well-known tennis players. At that time he was also involved
in this tournament in Düsseldorf and stringed the rackets
for Vilas. Vilas gave him this racket, which had broken
on the frame as well as the strings.
I noticed some special features that I would like to discuss
here, when looking at this G. Vilas Power racket. Its weight
is remarkable. Self-adhesive lead tapes are attached to the
head. Together with the stringing 385 grams. At that time,
the preferred weight was 360 grams. The length of a racket
was more or less unchanged at 68 cm for 100 years.
The G. Vilas Power has 69 cm. Unusual for the time.
Before the handle scales could no longer be moved by the
introduction of an adhesive, the screw at the end of the
handle, as can be seen in the picture, could no longer be
turned and the PCS system was thus dispensed with, the
racket reached its maximum length of 69 cm.
Small Elasto Cross
plastic parts are
clamped at the
crossing points
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Stretchy grommet
strip, accordion-shaped
The broken relatively thin gut strings (Babolat?) are probably
16L gauge with a diameter of 1.28 mm. With the
topspin style of Vilas, it can be assumed that he had a lot of
string wear.
He inserted the small pieces of plastic that appeared at
the centre of the playing surface at the crossing points:
Elasto Cross, in order to minimise the wear on the strings.
Top players today such as Roger Federer occasionally still
use them. Wilson and Babolat offer Elasto Cross sets.
Incidentally, Günter Adams invented the accordionshaped
grommet strip. This strip fits always even if the
holes for the eyelets in the frame are not precisely drilled.
Two cracks in the frame on the top right and bottom of
the frame on the left indicate, based on my experience with
hundreds of returns of tennis rackets we have made, imply
that Vilas wilfully threw the racket on the ground at an
outbreak of anger.
The racket is scraped off on one side at the top right by
repeated contact with the court. However, only on one
side! From this we can assume, that Vilas was left-handed
and that he did not turn the racket, i.e. he only hit the ball
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with one side of the racket face. Interestingly, as a former,
enthusiastic hobby player, I cannot visualise such a behaviour.
The scraping on the
right of the frame
head indicates that
Vilas was a left-hander
Puma AG G. Vilas Power 1987
Glass fibers enforced by graphite fibers embedded in epoxy. Grommet strips. Special strip
construction. Yoke screwed in. Yoke of Nylon. Gray. Midsize. Blue. Egg-shaped racket frame. Open
heart. Glossy painted. Plastic shells for handle. By turning a screw at the butt end: longer or shorter
racket. Leather wrapped handle. On racket: PCS. Racket used by Vilas at World Team Cup Tournament
1989 in Düsseldorf. Signed by Vilas. From Siegfried Schwank, professional stringer, then in Düsseldorf.
VS-gut, original, some broken.
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Lead tape on the frame head
Screw at the end of the
handle
Signed by G. Vilas
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