Let us be clear about what is being bought, because a tennis shoe is one of the few purchases in this sport where the wrong choice is charged to your knees rather than to your account.
It is not a speed shoe. What it offers instead is a wider base — a broader platform under the foot, which is straightforwardly harder to tip over — with a stability plate against twisting, a Zoom Air unit in the heel and soft foam under the forefoot.
The GP Challenge Pro is a comfort-first hard-court shoe and I want that stated at the top rather than buried.
The upper is breathable mesh for light support, with a plush tongue and a U-shaped entry, and the outsole is durable rubber for all court surfaces with extra rubber laid in at the high-wear points. Twelve ounces or so in a size 8.5.
It runs slightly short — buyers consistently report going up half a size, and I would budget for that. And it wants some breaking in, which is a cost paid in the first few sessions rather than in money, but it is still a cost and I decline to leave it off the sheet.
Two entries in the fit column that will save you an exchange.
Itanagar is a city that keeps proper accounts of itself. The Jawaharlal Nehru State Museum holds textiles, weapons and cane-and-bamboo work from the hill communities — and cane-and-bamboo work is an entire economy in one display case, because everything in it was made from what grew within walking distance, by hand, at no cost but time. Time is a cost. It is simply the one nobody invoices.
You will wear these everywhere from a hard court session to a long climb through the town, and while you are here — the Gompa sits on the hill directly above the museum, a Tibetan-style temple looking out over the rooftops, and the walk up is short and steep and repays it. Then Ita Fort, brick laid in mud mortar, its western rampart running close to a kilometre and a half.
A kilometre and a half of wall, laid brick by brick in mud, by people whose wage nobody wrote down. Finish at Ganga Lake, ferns and orchids on hard-rock banks, rowing boats out on the water. The boats cost something. The lake never has.
"The wrong shoe is not charged to your account. It is charged to your knees."
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