Probably the biggest equipment differences were the balls and the temperature/humidity in the room. Paraphrasing john's own words, who saw his run, a potted plant in the corner? Eight people claim to have watched john's run which I read took four hours. Did anyone really watch the entire four hours? It doesn't matter for the record, but the humidity created by even forty people or so around a table is a lot different than no crowd. Typical fifties climate control was a lot different too. This is a record set in front of the potted plant in the corner and a video camera that didn't get bored with john's hundreds of false starts.
Today's balls play considerably better than sixties balls, I have to assume better than fifties balls too. I have played with those old balls but they weren't new then. Of course there is john's obsession with cleaning the balls constantly.
In the end these things don't really matter. Equipment changes and the records are still allowed. Pole vaulters would be nowhere near the height they are now with an old wooden pole. john has a record that very few care about. Shattering most sports records would garner world wide attention. Shattering the straight pool record gets a world wide yawn from those that noticed.
Running out a few sets in a major competition would be far more attention grabbing. One should translate to the other such as Willie's dominance in his day. It won't though. Perhaps that is one reason for the lack of attention. john wasn't a great player before the record, he won't be a great player afterwards.
Hu
I usually agree with you, but on this one we are on different pages. How many US Opens have you won? John was/is/will continue to be a great player.
Regards,
John