On Jan. 25, 2024, Prestige Memorabilia announced a tennis memorabilia auction featuring a tennis history piece – Rafael Nadal’s championship point winning racket from his 2007 French Open Final win over Roger Federer. This iconic racket is the exact one Nadal used to seal his 3rd Grand Slam title. The racket is expected to sell for $150,000, with online bidding closing January 28th. It is the first major championship-point photomatched racket to come to auction.
Previous highest individual tennis racket auctions include Rafael Nadal’s 2022 Australian Open racket at $139,700, Billie Jean King’s ‘Battle of the Sexes’ racket at $125,000, and Novak Djokovic’s French Open 2016 racket at $107,482.
The historic racket for sale was previously in the Australian Tennis Museum. It was part of eight-time Grand Slam winner Ken Rosewall’s personal collection. The racket has since been shut in preparation to be turned into a gymnasium, which presents collectors this rare opportunity. The racket comes with certification from Resolution Photomatching, who also authenticated the record 2022 Australian Open racket sale. Resolution has confirmed that the racket being sold was the exact one Nadal won the championship point of the final with; they also concluded that Nadal used the racket during many previous tournament wins, including against Novak Djokovic and his current coach, Carlos Moya.
During the 2007 French Open final, a 21-year-old Rafael Nadal defeated many champions including Juan Martin del Potro, Lleyton Hewitt, Carlos Moya, and Novak Djokovic. In the final, Nadal faced world #1 Roger Federer before ultimately collapsing onto his back in celebration of victory; it was in this moment that he released the very racket onto the red clay.
Interested parties can find the auction online at thetennisauction.com. For more information, contact Prestige Memorabilia.
SOURCE Prestige Memorabilia
Source link
