ned a considerable portion of the tennis consumers by this time, introduced the first titanium racquet in 1991. Titanium, an extremely stiff and a very light material, is one of the main materials used by NASA in their space shuttles. Because this new material was approximately 40 percent lighter than graphite, racquets made out of titanium were simply too light for the advanced players who already have power and primarily demand control. Titanium racquets, however, opened a new door for the beginners and older players who lacked power. With their unmatched lightness, Head titanium racquets provided great maneuverability and power to the players who lacked those attributes. Other companies eventually implemented titanium as the primary material for the beginner’s racquets. They added titanium to their oversized series of racquets to gain even more consumers. But Head is also recognized as the first company to significantly experiment and introduce different shapes of racquet heads. Up until the 1990’s, only round and egg-shaped racquets were available on the market. In 1992, Head introduced a design with a slightly square frame, simply called the square-head design. The design was very flexible as to how “square” it can be, which left a lot of options for Head to make numerous types of racquets. Head’s innovative shape along with the right string pattern had a larger hitting area, even though the head of the racquet itself was still the same. This design became largely popular among the professional women players after companies like Yonex and ProKennex implemented the square shape into their line of women’s racquets. At the same time, the already mentioned, Yonex and ProKennex started making racquets that were specifically made for professional women tennis players on the WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) tour. Yonex revolutionized the head size of a racquet by making its Yonex XL130 model, 130 ...
