Abstract: A sports racquet has a head frame that includes a support member and an inwardly directed alignment member or fin. String segments are strung from a central strung area through respective holes in the fin, around the support member and back through further holes in the fin. The present invention provides a strong anchor for the strings which can withstand the static load thereof as well as dynamic loading placed on it by striking gamepieces as well as striking other objects. In a preferred embodiment, the fin returns the string segments to a strung area that is substantially planar up to the inner periphery of the fin.

Abstract: A racquet with strings and a handle has at least a portion of the strung length of at least some of its strings at least partially within a cavity defined by the racquet's handle, and/or, in the case of a racquet having a shaft, a cavity defined by the racquet's shaft. Typically two, or some multiple of two, strings are extended in strung length by at least a portion of the length of the handle's (shaft's) cavity. The cavity may be but only slightly recessed into the handle (shaft), and may be nearly as long as is the handle (shaft) itself. Particularly in the case those racquetball racquets qualified by the 1996 rules of the American Amateur Racquetball Association to twenty one inches (21") in total length, each of preferably two or more "long" strings commonly extend at least fifteen and one-half inches (.gtoreq.51/2"), and may extend as long as twenty and one-half inches (>201/2"), in strung length by virtue of extending within the cavity of a hollow handle.