Tennis equipment includes rackets, balls, nets, lighting, fencing and strings. This equipment is approved by the International Tennis Federation (ITF), the worldwide governing body of the sport. Manufacturers have created many variations on tennis equipment for use in sanctioned matches, as well as for recreational play.
Equipment Specifications
Tennis requires participants to use a racket and ball to play the game. The ITF sets the technical parameters for all equipment to be legal. Rackets must conform to certain weight, length and head size requirements. The strings used in a racket must form a uniform pattern, with no objects inserted in the strings above the bottom cross string, so as not to interfere with the ball. Balls must meet certain specifications regarding internal pressure, felt and rebound height.
Court Equipment Specifications
In addition to the court itself, court accessories are governed by the ITF, including the net, lights and location of fences. The net must be 36 inches in the center, 39 inches at the singles sidelines and 42 inches at the doubles alley. Singles sticks are inserted in the net at the singles sideline during singles matches to ensure the 39-inch height requirement. Lighting is measured using footcandles, and courts that do not meet the minimum requirement for footcandles (resulting in poorly lit courts) are not sanctioned for official matches. The ITF also sets the distance of the fence away from the boundaries of the court, but are mostly used for professional matches.
Racket History
During the early modern era of tennis (1920s to 1970s), tennis rackets were made primarily of wood, were 26 inches long, had a head size of approximately 95 square inches and featured leather grips. Toward the late 1960s, manufacturers began to experiment with materials, beginning with the Wilson T200, made of aluminum. Graphite and fiberglass soon followed, and today, many materials are used, including carbon fiber, boron and kevlar. Racket head size increased in the 1980s with the introduction of the Prince Classic, which was 108 square inches Today, rackets are legal at up to 135 square inches and most come with synthetic grips.
Racket Technology
During the 1980s, a European inventor widened the cross shaft of a tennis racket, giving it significant power. Turned down by Head and Prince, the creator teamed up with Wilson Racket Sports and created the Profile, which became the No. 1-selling racket in the U.S. with no advertising, based on the sales of the racket in tennis specialty shops via tennis teachers. After being notified by a U.S. inventor that he actually held the U.S. patent for the wide-cross section technology, Wilson agreed to pay the inventor, and added another racket patent the inventor had secured. Adding weight to the head of a racket increases its sweet spot, but makes the racket head heavy. The inventor decided to take weight out of the handle, making the head heavier, but the racket lighter overall. This technology was marketed in the Hammer line of rackets.
Balls
Tennis balls were white until the 1970s, when pink, orange and yellow balls came into popularity. After ophthalmologic studies confirmed that yellow was the optimum color for visibility during a tennis match, the ITF adopted Optic Yellow as the standard for legal balls. White balls are no longer used, with pink balls recently introduced for recreational play as a way to raise money for breast cancer. The tennis industry has experimented with the size and pressure of tennis balls in an attempt to slow down the professional game, which many feel is too fast today, as well as to help beginners enter the game more quickly. The Rally Ball was universally rejected by professional players after its introduction in the 1980s, who felt it threw off their timing and would cause elbow problems, due to its extra weight. Currently, foam balls are used to teach both adults and youngsters the game, because errant swings do not send the slower, softer balls careening into other courts or over the fence.
Strings
For much of the history of tennis, strings were made from lamb's intestines and incorrectly referred to as "cat gut." During the 1970s, manufacturers began offering synthetic nylon strings. Today, players can choose from dozens of strings made of myriad materials. The gauge, or thickness of a string, affects the control, elasticity and rebound of strings, with lower-level players preferring a thicker gauge, and better players using thinner strings.
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