Brothers cause a racket

Earlier this week at the Virginia National Bank Men’s Pro Championship, a person connected with the tournament — evidently a tennis purist — snarled at the sight of Brian and Dann Battistone. He referred to the brothers as a gimmick.

A short time later, a group of spectators literally stopped in their tracks when they saw the Battistones playing their first-round doubles match at the Boar’s Head Sports Club. It was as if the circus had come to town.

The brothers, who grew up in Utah before moving to Santa Barbara, Calif., have grown used to these types of reactions. After all, they are the only players on tour who use rackets that one onlooker joked, “look like garden tools.”

So what’s all the fuss about?

Well, the Battistones play with rackets that seem like normal ones from a distance. But, when you get a little closer, there is one glaring difference — their rackets, which they grip like the aforementioned garden shears — have two handles. They almost seem like upside-down slingshots.

“From the beginning, people have called us clowns and said we’d never win a match,” said Dann Battistone, 33. “But slowly, we’re just breaking down the barriers. In 2008, we rose faster in the doubles rankings than any other team in the world. I think it motivates us more than gets us down.”

On Wednesday, the Battistones defeated Catalin Gard and Deniss Pavlovs 6-1, 7-6(5) to advance to the quarterfinals. Today, they play third-seeded Martin Emmrich and Andreas Siljestrom.

The Battistones grew up in Salt Lake City playing basketball. They dreamed of being the next John Stockton and Karl Malone.

When the brothers realized they had many things working against them to attain that dream, they decided to focus on tennis.

Dann wound up playing collegiately at Boise State and Brigham Young, while younger brother Brian, 30, played satellite tournaments.

It was while living in Los Angeles about eight years ago that Brian first got the idea about the racket. A club pro saw him messing around on a court, switching his racket from his left hand to his right hand after every stroke — essentially hitting a forehand every time.

It just so happened that the pro’s father, Lionel Burt, had invented a racket that had two handles. He suggested that Battistone give it a whirl.

“To be honest, I thought there was just no way I was going to use it,” Battistone said. “I took a look at it and I was like, ‘This is interesting, but I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do with it.’”

Skeptically, Battistone began practicing with it. Then, after about two or three weeks, a light went on.

“I said, ‘Whoa, I think I could actually use this thing,’” he said.

It was about three years ago, after Battistone had returned from a Mormon mission, that he took the idea of the racket to family friend Jim Easton. Easton, the head of Easton Sports, agreed to manufacture it in China. Prior to that, Battistone was using a homemade one, held together by screws.

After the rackets were made, Battistone was able to get them approved by the International Tennis Federation for all levels of play, and, subsequently, began playing real matches with it.

The next step was getting Dann on board with the new technology. It wasn’t an easy thing since Dann was an assistant tennis coach at BYU at the time.

“I’m a little more traditional,” Dann said. “ He’s always thought more outside the box.

“My first reaction was, ‘I don’t think I can play with that thing.’”

His fellow coaches at BYU weren’t exactly supportive, either.

“The head coach was like, ‘If you use that thing, I don’t know if we want you here anymore,’” Dann recalled.

However, Dann eventually decided to try it — and quickly became hooked, just like Brian.

“You have the advantage of disguise, reach, power, stability,” said Dann, when asked about the racket’s advantages.

Dann says he is able to get six more inches of reach with the racket on his two-hand backhand. He says he has no loss of control and that the racket helps him on his serve.

“It helps pronate the wrist and you get a little more action and spin on the ball,” he said.

Brian, meanwhile, uses the racket a little differently. His serve, which looks like something off the pro beach volleyball tour, is worth the price of admission. He throws the ball high into the air with one hand and switches the racket back to that hand while in mid-air.

“I started experimenting with it because I wanted to get more height and angle into the court,” he explained.

When hitting groundstrokes, Brian’s goal is to hit a forehand almost every time.

“I think that’s the future of tennis,” Dann said. “Traditionally, the forehand is the weapon and the backhand is either solid or weak.

“Just imagine [Rafael] Nadal with two forehands. He gets extra reach, extra power, and then if you could serve with both hands as well…”

Before taking time off from the tour about six months ago — Dan wanted to be at home with his wife and three young children — the Battistones were ranked as high as No. 150 on the tour.

The Battistones have had some nice wins. They’ve beaten the likes of John Isner, who, if you recall, defeated Andy Roddick at the U.S. Open over the summer.

Certainly, the brothers have proved they’re more than just a sideshow.

“We’ve gained a lot of respect from players just because we’ve had a lot of decent wins,” Dann said. “In fact, now a lot of them just want to try [the rackets] out.

“I think, someday, the No. 1 player in the world will use this racket because there are just so many advantages. We believe in the racket. If we knew we could be No. 1 in the world playing with a snow shovel, then that’s what we would play with if it was legal.

“This is the racket we choose to play with because we feel we can play the best tennis with it.”

Because of their recent time off, the Battistones have slipped considerably in the rankings. However, they say they are poised to make one last run. The dream of going up against the Bryan brothers — Bob and Mike Bryan, the No. 1 doubles team in the world — has replaced the Stockton and Malone fantasy.

“In the beginning, nobody thought we could win a match with [the racket] at the open level, let alone have success on the pro tour,” Dann said. “We’ve come a long way.”