Abstract: A tennis racket having a head portion, handle portion and a shaft portion connecting the head portion to the handle portion. The shaft portion includes an arc which extends perpendicular to the plane defined by the head portion. Alternatively, a portion of the shaft has a thickness that is reduced in comparison to the rest of the shaft. In both embodiments, a filamentary traction element can be used to bridge the corresponding arc or reduced portion.

Abstract: A tennis racket having a handle which is constructed so that the racket will flex more readily when the ball strikes one surface of the racket strings than when the ball strikes the opposite surface of the strings. This difference in flexibility enables the racket user to selectively return a soft or a hard stroke by turning the racket through 180.degree.. The difference in handle flexibility can be obtained by (1) making the handle assymetric in cross section as in FIG. 1, or (2) making one longitudinal side of the handle of a material of different elasticity than the opposite longitudinal side, or (3) providing a bend in the handle as shown in FIG. 3 and FIG. 4.