Tennis balls are used for play in the games of tennis, cricket, matkot, hurling and two square. Standard-size tennis balls are 2.63 inches in diameter and may be pressureless or pressurized. Balls used during official games are bright yellow, but other tennis balls are available in a variety of colors. Tennis balls are covered with felt, which slows them in flight and ensures that they bounce when hitting a surface. Balls may be imprinted with the manufacturer's name.
Pressureless
Pressureless balls, also called practice balls, are solid-core balls made from foam or rubber. They do not lose their bounce as quickly as pressurized balls, and so they last much longer. The felt covering wears off with use, which is when the balls need to be replaced. Companies that produce pressureless balls include Tretorn, Wilson, Dunlop and Penn. The cost of pressureless balls is slightly higher than that of pressurized ones, but the higher cost is offset by the longer period of usage before replacement is required. Pressureless balls are the better choice for use in tennis-ball machines, particularly for users who do not practice every day.
Pressurized
Pressurized balls are hollow-core balls filled with pressurized gas and packaged in a pressurized container. This type of ball rapidly becomes depressurized after removal from its packaging. Tennis balls go flat or lose their bounce after about 2 to 4 weeks. The elevation of your location, the quality of the tennis ball and your frequency of play affect the degradation of your ball. Machines are available that repressurize old tennis balls. These machines are expensive, but balls can be repressurized again and again, until the felt wears away.
Disposal
According to Tennis.com, more than 300 million tennis balls are made each year, adding up to a lot of rubber waste in landfills. Rebounces, the company that makes a ball-repressurizing machine, collects tired balls and selects the ones that can be repressurized. Balls that are not salvageable go to retirement centers and schools; these locations cut out a portion of the ball and place the old tennis balls under chair feet and walkers, to help them slide on floors without leaving marks.
Caution
Although many dog owners like to give their dogs tennis balls as play items, this is an unsafe practice. The felt wears down a dog's teeth, and a tennis ball can be a choking hazard for a larger dog. The coating on a tennis ball, which is not designed for consumption, may contain dyes or chemicals unsafe for your dog. Pieces of chewed-up tennis ball may become lodged in your dog's intestinal tract, which can cause death if undetected and untreated.
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