Development of the tennis racquet since 1945.

Task 2 – Development of the tennis racquet since 1945

The development of the tennis racquet has been radical and dramatic too bring the game too what it is today. The changes have been the most dramatic in terms of size, shape and weight (the weight changed due too the massive change in materials used).

The racquets being used in 1940’s would have been constructed with a simple wooden frame, with a leather grip

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Although at the time metal racquets of some description were available very few people used them; professionals and amateurs alike preferred the wooden racquet to produce the best results in competition. This was the metal racquets which were designed as early as 1889 were very heavy and uncomfortable to use in comparison too the wooden racquets of that time. Although the wooden racquet had it’s limitations; especially in terms of head size, as the very small heads in use restricted the size of the “sweat spot” to generate maximum power and accuracy so it was inevitable at some point would design a new more effective racquet.

The first real challenger to the traditional racquet came in the form of a Wilson metal racquet, called the T2000. It was made from steel and so had a stronger and lighter than wood, but was made with a similar frame as the older wooden racquets (with a long handle and a small head). Billie Jean King became the first gland slam winner with a metal racquet (the T2000) in 1967, but by the 1970’s Jimmy Connors became the most popular men’s tennis player, playing at the top of the men’s single game for most of the 1970’s using the steel racquets with a long handle and small head:

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The advantages of Steel over Wood

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The advantages of Steel over Wood

The original wooden racquets had many disadvantages in comparison to the early steel racquets. Although wooden racquets tended to be quite inexpensive they were very easy to break (meaning they had to make with much thicker frames which inevitably increased the weight and made them harder to use) and had a limited threshold in terms of the amount of power you could put into your shots. Another factor which led to their demise was the fact that because all different sections of wood had different grains and shapes it made it almost impossible to mass produce the wooden racquets. Due to the weaknesses that the wooden racquets had it soon became in practical to use them when lighter and stronger metal racquets were on offer.

Whereas the steel racquets had a much greater stiffness than wood and particularly increased the power of your shots, this combined with the light weight the metal provided in comparison too the wood meant it became the ideal material for tennis racquet design before more modern materials could come into use. Metal racquets were also very easy to mass produce; yet the one thing they did seem to lack was the control and feel of a wooden racquet. This came with the new metals which soon came into to use by tennis racquet designers; such as aluminium and then later titanium.

The beginning of Aluminium racquets

In 1976 the first “oversized” head racquet which became popular was brought out by Prince and was named the Prince classic. Although a company named Weed had previously designed and built an oversized head racquet in 1975 but it never took off, unlike the Prince Classic and the Prince Pro both gained wide spread popularity though out the tennis player world. The two racquets were the best selling racquets of there time. They had progressed from the popular T2000 as they had a shorter handle and a larger head that increased the accuracy and power of the player because the head was larger and therefore had a larger surface area for striking the ball and creating more power. It was approximately 50% larger in terms of aluminium frame and head than the standard wooden racquets.

This very large sweet shot and light aluminium frame made the game much easier for amateur tennis players yet professionals found that the large string bed and aluminium frame became too altered when striking the ball and sometimes sent the ball in the wrong directions. This mainly occurred when shots were hit off centre, as it would alter the aluminium frame because it was too weak so the strings would be facing the wrong direction and thus hit the ball in an undesired direction. The solution to these problems came in the form of titanium.

The advantages of Titanium over Aluminium

While Titanium and aluminium are both still metals with quite similar properties throughout, titanium has obvious advantages. Mainly because titanium is much better at vibration dampening or shock absorption, which plays a large part in the game. In the short term it could often cause players to miss direct their shots because of the large vibrations but in the long term it could cause tennis elbow, which was vibrations travelling from the strings though the frame and down the players arm and could be quite painful. These vibrations occurred when the ball was hit out of the sweat spot.

To counter this tennis racquet manufacturers could not only use titanium (which was quite expensive in comparison to metals such as steel and aluminium) but they could also enlarge the size of the head, and thus enlarging the size of the sweet spot. But the large frame meant the material would have to be much lighter because metals were certainly too heavy to be used effectively by any tennis player. This is when the first composite materials (such as carbon fibre) were brought into use by tennis racquet manufacturers.

The beginning of Carbon fibre

Professional tennis players needed the strength and stability they got from a steel/aluminium racquet but the weight and handling they got from the very light weight small headed racquet. The perfect material came in the form of carbon fibre (commonly known as graphite); and by the 1980’s the graphite racquet was used throughout the professional tennis scene at least. The design of tennis racquets had fallen into two categories, the expensive graphite racquets and the cheap aluminium based racquets. The racquet head shapes and grip lengths still continue to differ throughout the tennis world. For example players such as Bryon Black prefer a longer handle because he frequently plays double handed backhands and forehands:

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Yet most professionals play predominantly one handed and have a slightly oval shaped racquet head; this maximises the sweat spot and the stability of the racquet. Although tennis racquet designers were still looking for ways to improve the stiffness of the racquet without gaining any weight. In 1987 Wilson made a “widebody” racquet because this increased the stiffness of the racquet along the plane in which the racquet must be resisting the force of the tennis ball. The frame width was a massive 39mm, yet such extreme widths fell out of preference for professional players, yet the racquets sold today still have much thicker frames in comparison too the racquet shapes and sizes that were used before the rise and fall of the original widebody. Other variations to the standard racquet shape were head’s with a wider end nick named “hammer head” racquets:

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The standard racquets being used by professionals in 2003/2004 have a very oval shaped head a reasonably long handle for double handed shots which many players use, in particularly for their back hands:

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The advantages of Graphite over Metal

Graphite racquets have a very good stiffness and very light weight; which the previous materials such as wood and metal could only achieve one of these 2 desired aspects for any tennis player. The very good stiffness meant the racquets had good shock absorption and also the ability to produce powerful shots without any sign of damage. Although titanium is still widely used throughout the amateur tennis world due too it being very light and much less expensive than graphite; but in terms of weight to strength ratio graphite still had a big advantage over titanium racquets.

Most professionals nowadays use graphite racquets simply because the material is the best suited for tennis, yet we still see titanium racquets in the shops today because they are cheaper to build and therefore cheaper to buy; this is why they most amateur/casual tennis players will use titanium racquets because they are effective but not as expensive as graphite racquets.