Majari Magazine

Tennis: The Technology

by Majari on 07/03/08 at 9:22 am | No Comment | Print article | Email article

Anyone loves playing tennis? The game was invented in the year between 1859 and 1865, and was played with a racquet and a rubber ball. The object of the game was to hit the rubber ball over the net into the opponent’s side of the court to score a point. We bet you all have at least seen a tennis game, and this sport is one of the sports that pretty much relies on chemical and material technology.

Racquets

The earliest racquets used in tennis were made of wood which caused a number of inconsistency problems such as the wood warping and the use of different woods in racquets making a different feel when striking the ball. Early designs used metals in their new designs many companies experimented with metals such as aluminum, magnesium and titanium. Then many companies 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. And now nanotechnology now has its own position in tennis racquets. The carbon nanotubes racquets are five times more rigid than current carbon racquets and enhance the performance for the stabilizers between the sweetspot and racquet handle.

Strings

The earliest tennis strings were made from cow intestines – which is now called natural gut – a very reliable string but very expensive. With time and increasing 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 and power as well as making the string more durable.

Balls

Originally the ball consisted of crude 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. In 1972 the tennis ball was manufactured with the optic yellow felt. Now tennis balls are mass produced for high performance at minimal costs.

Apparels

Even though tennis does not really require a high-technology apparels as it doesn’t really concern the human body’s aerodynamics, tennis shirts and skirts are quite important for the sake of comfort. Today’s tennis shirts and tennis skirts are made of polymers such as polyester, polyvinyl chloride, nylon, elastane, and some other synthetic materials. Those materials are marketed with a brand of Lycra(r), Nylon(r), and some other famous sport wear material brands.

Amazing, huh? It is very impressive how chemical and material engineering influence the development of sports. Boron, ceramics, graphite, composites, polymers, optics, and nanotechnology! Well, we guess those terms are now not as scientific as it seems.

Reference: Wikipedia, TennisPlaza, Tennis Warehouse