Armed with a two-handled racquet that resembles a pair of hedge clippers, Brian Battistone headed to the US Open to play mixed doubles this week.
Never mind that he and partner Nicole Melichar lost to Nuria Llagostera Vives and David Marrero of Spain in the first round. It was Battistone, who caught the attention around Court 14 a non-conformist with a strange racquet and a strange jump serve, sporting the most unorthodox look at Flushing Meadows.
“People say it looks like hedge clippers,” Battistone said.
Melichar calls it “The Alien.”
Battistone has heard it all. “I’m the guy everyone knows about, probably kind of laughs about,” said the 33-year-old doubles specialist.
On a half-decade hiatus after a career as a high-level junior, Battistone was messing around at some courts by the beach one day six years ago, “tossing the racquet back and forth from one hand to another, just hitting two forehands.”
Up walked Lionel Burt, the man who invented the two-handled racquet.
Figuring two heads are better than one; Burt struck up a conversation with Battistone. Not long after, they came up with a new design and went into business together.
By switching from one grip to the other, Battistone says he gets full reach on each side and creates better angles on his groundstrokes and volleys.
“The whole premise of it from the inventor’s perspective is, it’s more healthy to use each side of the body equally.”
That crazy jump serve is a different story. Battistone lines up about two feet behind the baseline, jumps and tosses the ball with his right hand, switches the racquet over to that hand, then explodes into the ball and lands a couple of feet in the court.
“It’s like a spike in volleyball,” he said. “Works for me a lot of the time.”
