The sport of surgeons

“It’s the extension of the arm, essentially your hand…”

Roger Federer

Tennis was originally played with solid wooden bats. Strangely, it was the renaissance of modern surgery that lead to the stringing of these bats, transforming them into racquets. General anaesthesia was pioneered across the world from the mid 1800s. There was a boom in the number of procedures and an unprecedented need for quality surgical supplies. French butcher Pierre Babolat was a renowned specialist in transforming sheep intestines into sausage casings, He pivoted his business into the very lucrative manufacture of precision, quality natural gut surgical sutures. Surgeons paid more than sausage makers. In 1875, Bussey an English racquet maker proposed a partnership to Babolat, with the novel idea of stringing racquets with his high quality gut. Babolat accepted the challenge and the end result is that in 2026 I wield a Babolat Pure Drive on the court. In blue of course. #hybridpolyeaster55pounds #letsmakelemonade