Tennis technology

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Since the sport's inception, the design and manufacture of tennis equipment has been affected by technological advances and regulations. As is common in major sports, regulations became more exacting over time, with improvements affecting the qualities of the tennis racket and the tennis ball.

Contents

Rackets

As materials improved, becoming lighter and stronger, rackets were made larger, accordingly. Larger rackets have more surface area, making them easier for many players to return a ball. Sizes are:

The balance point and grip size of a racket changed as technology progressed. Depending on the player's style of play, choice is made between a head-heavy racket and a head-light racket. Head-heavy rackets provide more power on serves and ground strokes, while head-light rackets provide more control. Along with racket balance, the size of the grip on the racket can affect play style as well.

Materials

Early rackets were made of wood, which was not as good as modern materials, since wood has inconsistencies, resulting in different feels when striking the ball. Wood rackets needed a brace to stop warping when not in use. Later designs used metals, with experimenting with metals such as steel, aluminum, magnesium and titanium.

Billie Jean King won the first Grand Slam title ever in 1967 using a racket made out of steel. It was the first time in history that a racket other than wood had been used to win a Grand Slam. Steel racket prototypes had been around since 1922 but were first patented in 1957. [1]

In 1968, Spalding launched an aluminium racquet, called "The Smasher". Aluminium is lighter and more flexible than steel, but stiffer – and therefore less accurate – than wood. Because of this, most of the top players still preferred to use wooden frames – and a decade later they were still in use. [2]

1980s graphite introduction

In the early 1980s, "graphite" (carbon fibre) composites were introduced, and other materials were added to the composite, including ceramics, glass-fibre, boron, and titanium. The Dunlop Max200G used by John McEnroe from 1983 was an early graphite racket, along with the very popular Prince original graphite. Composite rackets are the contemporary standard, the last wooden racquet appeared at Wimbledon in 1987. [2] Later, people experimented with materials such as boron, ceramics, graphite, and composites. Each material had its own desirable qualities but ceramics and graphite were the best picks for being very stiff as well as being very good with vibration reduction. [3] [4]

Strings

The earliest strings were made from cow intestines ("natural gut"), a reliable string but very expensive. With time and improved technology manufacturers have been trying to duplicate the natural gut feel with synthetic materials. Also, manufacturers are creating strings that are designed to produce more spin, power, and durability. It remains unclear whether the technological innovations in materials, product architecture, and size affected the performance of players, even if such innovations are controversial and even contested by sport-regulatory bodies. The prevailing standards are as much due to advancements in musical string technology as to the social construction of the racket by the tennis playing public and the manufacturers who furnish the sporting goods. Social construction refers to the framing or interpretation of the physical implement by the community of tennis players some of whom often challenged the putative benefits of certain strings or other aspects of the tennis rackets. [5]

Balls

Originally the tennis ball consisted of rough cloth strips tightly bound together. Eventually the cloth strips became the core, wrapped in twine and covered by a finer cloth or felt hand-stitched around it. [6] In 1972, at the request of Lamar Hunt to televise World Championship Tennis, the tennis ball was manufactured with the optic yellow felt. Now yellow tennis balls are mass-produced for high performance at minimal costs.

See also

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bentley Fortissimo</span>

The Bentley Fortissimo tennis racquet of 1972 was the first oversize tennis racquet to be produced and demonstrated publicly. Prior to its introduction, all tennis racquets were much smaller in terms of the stringbed size, measured in square inches. Today, that size, known as standard, is not used by any professional player for professional match play.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ProKennex</span> Taiwanese manufacturer of tennis racquets

ProKennex is a Taiwanese manufacturer of racquet sports equipment for tennis, squash, badminton, racquetball, and pickleball. The company enjoyed wide global distribution in the 1980s, when manufacturing in Taiwan was booming due to domestic economic conditions. Parent company Kunnan Enterprise Ltd. has faced financial difficulties since the mid 1990s, leading to a contraction of the ProKennex name globally. Today, the company focuses on a niche set of consumers interested in technology advancements in racquet sports. The company focuses on this aspect of its products by promoting itself as a "science and design company", rather than a standard racket manufacturer.

References

  1. ↑ Staff (2022-11-17). "What If Graphite Was Never Sanctioned". The Resource Nexus. Retrieved 2023-05-02.
  2. 1 2 "The quest for the tennis sweet spot". 12 September 2005.
  3. ↑ Bud Collins' Modern Encyclopedia of Tennis
  4. ↑ Khan, Sajid (2021-06-10). "racquets are made up of graphite". ElasticReviews.com. Retrieved 2021-07-16.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  5. ↑ .Such controversy resembles the recent disputes about speed skaters' drag-diminishing garments and friction drop of swimwear worn at Olympic Games. Kim, Hann Earl; Johannes M. Pennings (2009). "Innovation and Strategic Renewal in Mature Markets: A Study of the Tennis Racket Industry". Organization Science . 20 (2): 368–383. doi:10.1287/orsc.1080.0420.
  6. ↑ Tennis: Game of Motion by Eugene Scott
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