New York man builds world's largest tennis racket

Multiple Guinness record holder American has built a 50-feet-long tennis racket, almost as big as a bus and claimed it to be the largest in the world, dedicated to Indian-origin spiritual leader Sri Chinmoy.

The racket was built by city-native Ashrita Furman and a group of 20 followers of Chinmoy within 10 days and has been dedicated to the spiritual leader on the anniversary of 81st birthday, which falls on August 27.

Furman holds the record for the most Guinness World Records and hopes to see the huge wooden racket make it to the Guinness list.

On Chinmoy's previous birthdays, Furman had built the world's biggest pencil. The racket has a height of 50 feet and is 16 feet wide. Its strings are made of water hose. It is a replica of the wooden racket used by legendary tennis player Billie Jean King in the 1970s.

Chinmoy met and played with many tennis players and had a close association with some, including India's tennis star Leander Paes.

Chinmoy taught Furman meditation and inspired him for self-transcendence, according to a statement issued here.

Chinmoy, born in 1931 in undivided India's East Bengal region, now Bangladesh, wrote 1600 books, composed 21000 songs and drew thousands of paintings.

Furman was inspired by Chinmoy and started setiing Guinness World Records in various fields.

At present he has 151 world records to his credit.

"I am trying to show others that our human capacity is unlimited," Furman said. Among Furman's various records are balancing 81 drinking glasses on his chin and running a half marathon with a full bottle of milk on his head.

He was helped in his endeavour by people from across the world, including a person from New Zealand did the wood finishing, a professional violinist who worked on the strings and a German national who worked on the racket's wood.