The laws, properly enough, are not concerned with the kind of racket used; it can be of any size or shape.
Summed up, a player can use to hit the ball any implement that can be regarded as complying with the term racket. About the only thing that cannot legally be used to hit the ball is a player’s hand or arm. (USLTA 72).
In effect, many different types of rackets began to appear on the market. Metal rackets were beginning to take over and the wooden rackets were becoming obsolete. Rackets that were made of steel appeared as early as the 1920’s but not until the 1960’s did the first steel racket become popular with the Wilson T2000 used by Jimmy Connors. The Wilson T2000 proved to be lighter and stronger than wooden rackets and innovators continued to develop more rackets like it.
However, the reign of the Wilson T2000 was short lived. According to Edward Tenner, author of When Things Bite Back: Technology and the Revenge of Unintended Consequences, the Prince was the next metal racket to storm the market. Introduced in 1976 by Howard Head, the Prince was an oversized, aluminum racket mainly directed for amateur players. This new racket had a surface area almost twice the size of the normal wooden racket, which was still widely popular in the 1970s, at 130 square inches and a much larger sweet spot as well. The Prince also seemed to lower tennis elbow symptoms (Tenner 1). Not only did this new racket appeal to the middle-aged men for whom it was designed but also professionals began to use it because of the exceptional power it offered compared to the wooden rackets of the time.
As a result, metal rackets seized the market and wooden rackets were virtually eliminated. According to Edward Tenner, Bjorn Borg, one of the top players of his time, was one of the last few that used the wooden rackets. He proceeded to lose 12 of 17 games to a player ranked 52nd in the Monte Carlo Open of 1991. Bjorn Borg played with a wooden racket while the lower ranked player used a graphite-fiber racket (Tenner 2). Professionals using wooden rackets were not able to compete with those that used metal because of the extraordinary power offered by the Prince clones.
As time passed, more and more new rackets were introduced. Many producers began to develop rackets the consisted of metal composites where different metals were strung together to form the frames of the racket. At the entrance of the new metal composite rackets, one of the most famous rackets was the Dunlop Max 200G, which was used by John McEnroe and Steffi Graf. At around the same time as well, Wilson introduced wide-bodied frames giving rackets more racket stiffness. Although these rackets faded in popularity, they changed the way newer rackets were made and caused newer rackets to be wider than previous racket frame designs. In fact, many companies have looked towards electricity in the present day rackets to stiffen frames. According to Jeff Cooper, a number of rackets made by Head use piezoelectric technology which converts vibration or motion to electrical energy, which in turn is used to stiffen the metal composite materials within the frame (Cooper 3). However, these rackets have not appeared to be appealing to the professional player, most likely because of the excess of power they offer that can often be uncontrollable for the advanced player.
To understand how the physical properties of a racket are obtained, a few laws of rackets are explained in the following paragraph. According to Tennis Warehouse, an accomplished tennis supplier, larger frames generate more power, are more resistant to twisting, and have larger sweetspots. A sweetspot is the area of a strung racket that provides the greatest energy return or power and accuracy with the least amount of shock or vibration. Also, heavier frames generate more power, vibrate less reducing the elbow stress factor, and have a larger sweetspot. In addition, a stiffer frame generates more power and has a larger sweetspot as well but puts more shock on the arm. A stiffer frame also gives a more uniform ball response on the whole area of the string making it more forgiving and giving the racket better feel.
The stringing of the racket also affects the racket performance. Lower string tensions have been proven to provide more power while higher string tensions provide more ball control (Basic 1). The handle or grip of a racket is also important in the rackets’ performance. Handles usually come in sizes between four and five inches and are made from wood or plastic covered in leather. Currently, racket grips are covered in polyurethane and are made with unique designs to provide the most comfort to the player according to Wilson Sporting Goods (Cushion-Aire 1). Added up, all of these characteristics are required to complete a good racket that meets the public’s standards.
The ever popular wooden rackets of the 1900’s and earlier were originally made from wood with ash, maple, and okume. Wooden rackets usually weighed approximately 14 to 15 ounces and consisted of a balance centered at the neck of the racket with a small head. Because of the excessive weight of wood in making rackets, frames could not be made very thick or the racket would be too heavy to swing comfortably. However, this resulted in a flimsy, twisting racket with flexibility at the tip of the racket and smaller racket heads. If one had wanted to have a string tension reasonable for play, the head had to be small as a result of the pressure the string tension would produce. A larger wooden racket head would fold under the force of the string because of the limitations in the strength of wood. In addition, the wooden rackets featured a small sweetspot closer to the neck of the racket compared to the rather large sweetspots of modern rackets. As a result of these wooden racket characteristics, the wood rackets had a habit of causing tennis elbow. According to F. H. Froes, tennis elbow was caused by the tremendous pressure of hitting the tennis ball repeatedly with the weight of the racket. This produced stress on the elbow damaging small blood capillaries in the elbow muscles and tendons thus causing pain in the elbow (Froes 1). Therefore, many companies began to seek new designs of rackets to increase power and control as well as dissipate the damages of wooden rackets.
The modern tennis rackets are made of contemporary metals and metal composites. According to F. H. Froes, the rackets of today are made from metals including steel, aluminum, magnesium, titanium, graphite, Kevlar, and metal-matrix composites such as carbon-fiber reinforced rackets (Froes 1). Metal composite rackets were designed to compensate for the twisting and weakness of the aluminum rackets. Professionals desired more control and accuracy than the aluminum rackets provided and therefore, companies developed metal composites such as the Wilson Hyper Carbon series, which is reinforced by carbon-fiber. Also, modern rackets tend to weigh much less than wooden rackets weighing at an average of 10.5 ounces according to Jeff Cooper (Cooper 3). A few modern rackets reach weights as low as 7 ounces as well.
Contradicting the wooden rackets, modern rackets have a very large sweetspot and are in effect, unlimited to virtually any design possible. Rackets made of metal and metal composites can be made small, large, long, or short and are not limited to the shapes or sizes of the heads, handles, and frames because of the flexibility in design of the metal and metal composites on the market today. In addition, tennis elbow is greatly reduced among the modern rackets because of the ability of the metal and metal composites vibration absorption. Rackets today are also designed to complement the style of play the player prefers. They are made specifically for certain types of players such as baseliners or all-court players, which are publicly known as serve and volleyers. As a result, modern rackets offer players more flexibility and a larger market in racket selecting.
As the rackets of the game have changed, the style of play has changed accordingly. During the wooden racket era, before the flood of the metal and metal composite rackets, players hit groundstrokes with slight topspin but mostly flat or with underspin, particularly on the backhand side. To provide the players with the underspin or flat shots, players hit with an eastern grip (slightly east of the continental style grip achieved by sliding the “V” area between the thumb and index finger down the side of the frame to the grip) to help generate slice and handle low balls better. Players used this style of play to compensate for the lower bounce produced on grass courts compared to the bounce of hard and clay courts today. In effect, groundstrokes had to be long and fluid with early preparation and a long follow through to get the necessary power and control by swinging the heavier wooden rackets.
Players with wooden rackets also stood sideways to the ball and stepped into the swing to generate more power. Furthermore, the small sweetspot of the wooden racket required players to have more exact, controlled swings instead of the quick, powerful, whip-like swings of today’s players. As an example, John McEnroe, a former tennis professional and Grand Slam winner, supports wooden rackets saying:
I have been a proponent of the wood racket…wood rackets would bring back skill and finesse to the game and would make the points longer and more fun to watch. And I could watch all those young guys cry like that little baby doll that wets herself as they try to return a serve with a 15-ounce piece of lumber. (McEnroe 1).
As a result, players could not end the point with a single shot like today and therefore games consisted of more rallies.
The rackets and styles of play have evolved to the 21st Century and have dramatically changed the way tennis is played. Instead of the long and fluid groundstrokes used with wooden rackets, lighter more powerful rackets have developed quick, short but powerful swings by tennis players today. The players also use a more western or semi-western grip (achieved by placing the racket on the ground and coming from straight above, picking the racket up with one hand). These grips tend to generate more power and topspin as well make it easier to hit high bouncing balls. This heavy topspin usually causes points to end more quickly with more winners and harder shots. These changes in the game are all in relation to the development of higher bouncing courts, hard courts and clay courts, and the shorter grass court tournament season. Also, as a result to the more powerful modern rackets, serves were consistently hit over 100 mph and many clocked at more than 120 mph contributing to the quicker points. Furthermore, many serves were unreturnable meaning that it would be almost impossible for players to return or even more to hit the ball with the racket.
The change in rackets in the 20th Century was not only limited to a change in the game but the tennis market was affected as well. According to Edward Tenner, the new rackets were not as profitable for racket manufacturers as the wooden rackets were during the peak in tennis popularity in the early 1970’s (Tenner 3). However, shortly following this rapid growth in tennis popularity, tennis’s popularity among the common people started to decline. According to the records of the Tennis Industry Association, two years before the introduction of the Prince racket in 1974, the number of tennis players reached its peak and then started a decline (Tenner 1). Later, the sale of tennis balls was evaluated and showed a drop in tennis ball usage between 1990 and 1993 (Tenner 3). A short explanation of this event could be that players were not ready to pay the higher price for newer metal rackets. The modern rackets, costing about $150, were much more expensive compared to the lower price of wooden rackets in the early 1970s. However, the introduction of the modern rackets produced a larger selection of varying rackets for tennis consumers shown in the following excerpt from Tennis Magazine, “To play your best tennis, your racket has to complement your game. And with more frames than ever being designed for specific types of players, finding that magic wand has never been easier.” (2001 Racket Guide 1) In addition, modern rackets are designed for all different types of players including strictly baseliners to serve and volleyers. Mark Macky, Dunlop’s director of racket sports, shows this in the following statement, “It’s no longer enough to make a racket for one ability level – beginner, intermediate, advanced. Today, companies make rackets that are targeted to specific styles of play. A serve and volleyer, for example, will want a different type of racket than a baseliner.” (2001 Racket Guide 1) Although while racket manufacturers may have suffered from the introduction of modern rackets, consumers seem to benefit. According to “New York Times” newspaper, the new metal rackets prove to last longer and need restringing less often saving consumers money (Tenner 3). Furthermore, metal rackets can last up to ten years or more contrary to the wooden rackets that were damaged by age, warping, and cracking.
In conclusion, although many tennis professionals believe that wooden rackets would increase the charisma of tennis, there is undeniable evidence that proves modern rackets to be better for the game and all levels of players. Newer rackets provide more options for tennis players, giving them more power and control than ever before therefore elevating the level of play in the game of tennis. They also appeal to lower levels of players making the game easier to learn and in effect, better for everyone. In addition, although the market seemed to be falling, it is currently rising for the game of tennis and showing this, the U.S. Open has had more viewers in the year of 2001 than ever before in the history of the game.