With all eyes turning to Roland Garros this weekend, Paddy Ryan from Sports & Tech, our major global gathering for leaders in the sector taking place in Dublin this October, looks at how far tennis racquets have come.
As soon as you mention Roland Garros or Wimbledon, people either think of Strawberries and Cream or the dreaded rain delays that so often play havoc with proceedings at the All England Club. With the French Open about to start this weekend, let’s consider instead the journey tennis racquet technology has come.
In the days of Billy Jean King and Bobby Riggs, technology was basic at best. Players used wooden racquets. Riggs was even known in his time to challenge players to a game of tennis using nothing more than a frying pan. Since the Battle of the Sexes in the 1970’s, tennis has evolved like all sports before our very eyes
Brands like Wilson, Head and Prince have been at the forefront of this evolution. The humble wooden racquet was seen as the industry standard until Jimmy Connors powered his way to victory in Wimbledon in 1974 using the steel Wilson T-2000.
This was seen as treason by many in the tennis fraternity and Connors was not being true to the game. Like it or not, Connors held the advantage using his new Wilson and others had to adapt in order to challenge.
The design of the steel Wilson T-2000 was largely traditional. The only remarkable difference was the material.
In the mid 1970s, Prince, Head and Dunlop started to develop the Oversized head racquets we’re familiar with today. Still made of steel, this new oversized technology allowed for greater power and accuracy and was quickly adopted by all players.
In an interesting twist however, Connors who was at the forefront himself of using new technologies was left behind as he persisted to use the T-2000. By the 1980’s, wooden racquets had become obsolete
Steel didn’t last long in tennis. The racquets while giving more power were too heavy any by 1983, a new space age material in graphite was being used. Wilson were leading the way and many of their top players including Pete Sampras were becoming serious challengers in all competitions.
After headsize came the widebody racquet. Wilson again the pioneers, this new racquet allowed for more powerful shots thanks to a larger beam width. The ever changing racquet technology meant the race was on for the next new development and competition was fierce.
Racquets changed in the years that followed with brands gaining advantages with minor gains. Some brands were even launched off the back of their success. The Babolat Pure Drive, used by the powerful Andy Roddick, was an ultra light racquet which aided the development of his monster serve and other great overall skills.
So where next for racquet technology? The latest super material to take the science world by storm is carbon based graphene, a nano material of wrapped single layered carbon atoms which has applications from aircraft design to purification of water systems.
Dutch manufacturer, Head who have Novak Djokovic as their No. 1 player, are using graphene composites in their rackets to allow for lighter racquets which allow control and power to be preserved. It is debatable if these composite racquets have helped his game, but it looks like graphene will be the next super material used in tennis racquets.
