Racket technology evolved a lot in the late 1970s and early 1980s, with Yannick Noah being the last player who won a Grand Slam with a wooden racket in 1983.

This article features the Dunlop Maxply McEnroe. It's an evolution of the Maxply series of wooden rackets and was John McEnroe's signature racket when it was released in 1982. In fact, part of McEnroe's contract when he switched to Dunlop from Wilson included the development of this signature racket.

But what makes this racket so interesting is that it is one of the last wooden rackets ever developed.

The Maxply McEnroe featured four different types of layered wood as well as extra reinforcement from vulcanised and glass fibre. As a result, this wooden racket was more powerful and stable in comparison to the wooden rackets that were the standard for many previous decades.

However, despite these improvements McEnroe himself would switch to the higher-tech graphite Dunlop Max200G in 1983, following a playtest of one owned by his younger brother Patrick McEnroe.

John McEnroe was one of the last top-level pro players to make the switch from wooden to graphite rackets, and the timing of it left many Maxply McEnroes unsold. In fact, many shops could barely get rid of them, resulting in massive price cuts to shift the suddenly antiquated rackets.

As a result, the Maxply McEnroe didn't sell in very large numbers. Today, they are prized by collectors looking to add the last wooden racket to their collections.