Themed Cardio Tennis Clinics in the Fort Lauderdale Area
This is the SFX Evo in its Sandglass colourway — broad through the foot, deeply padded underneath, Michelin rubber below. In my day we played on whatever we were handed. It still wants Recife walked before a ball is struck.
Babolat SFX Evo Sandglass Women's Tennis Shoes: Marco Zero has a mosaic compass rose set into the plaza, which is exactly the sort of thing I used to call a serving target before I won that 1978 final—ah, sorry, geography, not bragging rights.
Babolat SFX Evo Sandglass Women's Tennis Shoes: Rua do Bom Jesus is lined with painted townhouses on a narrow historic street, and I once threaded a passing shot down a line just as tight—there I go again, turning architecture into match point.
Babolat SFX Evo Sandglass Women's Tennis Shoes: At Kahal Zur Israel, a mikveh was uncovered beneath the synagogue floor, which reminds me of when I dug out a drop shot from the baseline in ’82—no, no, this is archaeology, not my highlight reel.
Babolat SFX Evo Sandglass Women's Tennis Shoes: The Capela Dourada is famous for gilded carved woodwork covering its interior walls, a level of shine I haven’t seen since my trophy cabinet—well, before the grandchildren used it for toy storage.
In my day you took the shoe you were given and your feet went numb by the third set, and we called that character. I won a lot of matches like that and I would not recommend a single one of them. The SFX Evo is what I would buy now.
It is the comfort model of the Babolat range in the Sandglass colourway — a wide fit, a generous forefoot, and a construction built around the idea that being comfortable for three hours is a performance feature and not a luxury.
The SFX last is cut for wider and stronger feet, with real room across the forefoot; Babolat tell standard-width players who want the comfort to go a half or a full size down, and I wish somebody had told me anything that useful. The upper pairs soft mesh with breathable mesh right through, and the upper mesh is 100% recycled polyester.
Here is what has changed since I retired.
The Ortholite insole is 20% thicker than the standard one — a fifth more cushioning under your foot than the shoe next to it on the shelf. Two lateral straps run beneath the upper with an external lateral reinforcement outside, which stops a soft shoe from turning into a hammock when you change direction.
Pro Shield covers the inner forefoot and toes in heavy moulded rubber.
The outsole is Michelin Original rubber, twenty years proven. That is a better shoe than anything I ever won a final in.
Recife is where I would take a long walk before a match. Marco Zero sets a mosaic compass rose into the plaza, which is the point everything here is measured from. Rua do Bom Jesus is one narrow street of painted townhouses, and at Kahal Zur Israel they lifted the synagogue floor and found a mikveh underneath, a bath cut down to the water table and unused for centuries.
Then the Capela Dourada, where gilded carved woodwork covers every wall to the point of disbelief.
You will get use out of these everywhere from those hot cobbles to a hard court back home in September, and by the way, they are also perfect for a plate of bolo de rolo and a coffee afterwards, which is how you spend the hour before a match when you are old enough to know better than to warm up early.
"We called numb feet character. It was not character. It was a shoe nobody had bothered to design."
