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Improvement of Tennis Equipment

Improvement of Tennis Equipment Improvement is certainly one of the main principles which define American culture and its people. It is evident in politics, economics, technology and even in sports. The improvement in sports is continuously producing higher standards for athletes and their performances. Stronger clubs, faster engines, safer pads, lighter bats, and longer lasting balls are just a few of the elements in the grand arsenal of ever-improving weapons. Such is certainly the case with the sport of tennis and its required equipment and apparel. The twentieth century has marked a new era of ever-improving athletic achievements and tennis is one of the primary examples. Other than golf and race-car driving, tennis equipment changed and improved more than any other sport. Since World War II, tennis racquets, strings, and grips have improved greatly, making today’s tennis players better than ever, regardless of their skill level and type of play. No other tennis equipment improved more than the racquets themselves. Although not much changed regarding racquet material for twenty years after the Second World War, tennis makers had began introducing new shapes and sizes as early as 1946. In that year, a small British company called Harrington Lawn Sports introduced a new, egg-shaped racquet head design with the intent to provide more power to the players who lacked it. These players primarily included beginners and amateurs. That same year and with the same intent, American Wilson company started selling its first line of 28-inch long racquets. These racquets were an inch longer and provided more power than the standard-length racquets. Wilson would later add the British egg-shaped design to its long body racquets to gain more sales among the amateur players. Not until 1965 did tennis racquets start to experience significant changes. By that time Wilson emerged as the leader of tennis racquet manufacturing. With the popularity of tennis growing, Wilson introduced a line of aluminum racquets. These racquets, however, did not have much of an impact on the buyers who were very skeptic of giving up the traditional wooden racquets. Although aluminum racquets were light and provided power, they lacked control and stiffness, which are one of the essential elements in the performance of a player. During the late sixties, many other American and international tennis companies began to emerge, providing competition and variety to the world of tennis. Some of the companies such as Spalding and Fischer were already well established sporting equipment companies who saw a promising potential in the tennis business. Spalding, in fact, was one of the first sporting equipment companies in the United States, starting its production of baseball bats and gloves in 1894. Today’s second largest tennis manufacturing company is also an American company, called Prince. Prince began its production in 1967, introducing its own version of aluminum racquets aside from their primary line of wooden ones. The company did not become a serious competition to Wilson until 1979 with its breakthrough racquet made out of a revolutionary material called graphite. The name of the racquet is Prince Graphite Classic, and aside from being the first graphite racquet in the world, it is also one of the most popular racquets in the Prince’s line of racquets today. Graphite material revolutionized the tennis world and elevated competition to new heights. Racquets made out of graphite have a much longer life than wooden racquets who through time would loose their stiffness and original shape. Unlike aluminum, graphite provided moderate amount of weight for a racquet to be heavy enough for the hard-hitting, advanced players and still light enough for the less powerful players. Throughout the 1980’s, graphite racquets slowly replaced wooden racquets and encouraged other companies to search for even more advanced materials. Wilson quickly responded to Prince’s breakthrough racquet by introducing its first own graphite racquet in 1980, the Wilson ProStaff 6.0. Unlike Prince and other companies who jumped on making all-graphite racquets, Wilson made a slower transition from wood to graphite with its ProStaff 6.0. Wilson decided to design a racquet with a mixture of 80 percent graphite and 20 percent kevlar, a heavier, metal-based material. Wilson’s intention was to maintain the original weight and control of a wooden racquet, while at the same time providing superb stiffness. This transition turned out to be very successful since ProStaff 6.0 has been the highest selling racquet for the past twenty years. Wilson would follow it success with other lines of racquets, including ProStaff 6.1, which has a larger hitting area than its predecessor ProStaff 6.0. In the same decade, companies like Yonex, Dunlop, Fischer, Head, Spalding, and others, started to innovate new designs and experiment with other materials. During the late 1980s, players started to get more choice on which brand and type of racquet to use. Also during this time, companies started to focus on making racquets that were specifically designed for amateur players and even beginners. Aside from implementing Wilson’s 28-inch long racquets, otherwise known as long body racquets, other companies started to make the hitting area of a racquet larger. By making the head of a racquet bigger, companies added more power to the racquet, as well as decreased the margin of error or miss-hitting the ball. By making tennis easier for the beginners, new racquet designs popularized tennis even more. Companies started following the theory that consumers would more than likely stay loyal to the brand of a racquet which they started The 1990’s are a prime example of a full implementation of this theory. An American company called Head, which gained 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 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 square inches wide. Such a large head size provided a large hitting area and added great amount of power. ProKennex was to first to add Head’s square-head design to proved power, as well as control in its line or racquets. Yonex and Fischer also followed up on this implementation of super-oversized, As far as the original head design and hitting area is concerned, traditional wooden racquets always had a head size of 85 square inches, regardless of the shape. The Wilson ProStaff 6.0 is currently the only racquet that holds this traditional, mid-size head. In order to compete with Prince’s Graphite Classic racquet and other popular racquets on the market, Wilson created the already mentioned, Wilson ProStaff 6.1, whose head size is 95 square inches. Racquets which have a head size of 95 square inches are today classified as mid-plus racquets and are generally used by professional and more advanced players. Oversized racquets, which were first introduced by Prince in 1992, became very popular among players of all levels since their first appearance. Dunlop and Spalding companies took a different road in achieving higher sales in the early 1990’s by introducing different racquets for different courts. The four major court surfaces in the world today are hard, grass, clay, and artificial turf courts. Some players find it hard to adjust to all f them because they all require a considerable amount of adjustments in the players’ games. Courts in the United States are called hard courts, being made out a concrete-based material, and are usually more suitable for power servers and more aggressive players. Such is also the case with the traditional grass courts in England. Clay courts, however, slow the ball down considerably, which suits more to the players with weaker serves and better ground strokes. Artificial turf courts are primarily used in Australia’s indoor facilities. These courts produce high bounces which takes much adapting from any type of player. Dunlop took a first step towards making a racquets designed for a specific court in 1993, with its racquet called Dunlop Revelation 2000. This racquet was intended for players who prefer hard-serving surfaces such as grass and indoor courts. Spalding, on the other hand, spend four years of research and experimentation with the leading players on the men’s professional tours around the world, and came up with a long line of racquets which were designed for specific court surfaces in 1997. Unlike Prince, Wilson quickly responded to this challenge by making its own line of different court racquets as well as all-court racquets the very next year. To the surprise of many, Prince rather concentrated on making racquets that would work on any type of court, regardless on the Prince, however, was the first company to introduce a same racquet model with an option of a mid-plus and oversized design. Other companies would follow up on this method, including Wilson. Up until 1998, over 85 percent of all tennis racquets made by Wilson, Prince, and Head were available in both, the mid-plus, and oversized versions. The concept behind these options is to create a tennis racquet for virtually every type of player. While generally the mid-plus racquets offer more control and less power, the oversized racquets shift back on control and add more power. Power and control also greatly depends on the model of a racquet and its brand. Prince and Wilson, the leading tennis companies proved a systematic scale of measuring power. Prince for example, has its method of power measurement on a scale from 500 to 1200. The higher the number, the more powerful the racquet is. Racquets under 800 power level are considered to be precision racquets and are generally used by more advanced players and professionals. Beginners and less advanced players generally start off with racquets with a high power level and work their way down, as their game progress and their skill level rises. Wilson, however, has a different power-measuring scale that ranges from 2.6 power level to 6.2 power level. Unlike the Prince scale, Wilson’s power level is lowest at 6.2, and highest at 2.6. Players who are more advanced would therefore use the racquets which are above 5.0, which include the popular line of Looking at the big picture of racquet manufacturing today, it is clearly evident that tennis players are given a much easier road from being beginners to being more advanced players. With so much technology being implemented into tennis racquets, the end is nowhere in sight of how advanced the tennis racquets will become. In 1998, Wilson introduced another breakthrough that again revolutionized the tennis world. With hyper carbon, another material that is currently used by NASA in their space shuttles, Wilson created a whole new line of tennis racquets for beginners. Aside from being three times lighter than titanium and four times lighter than graphite, hyper carbon is almost five times stiffer than either of the two materials used in the market today. With such a low weight and extreme stiffness, hyper carbon racquets provide enough power and maneuverability for virtually any type of a beginner. Not all companies prioritize on making loyal consumers in the amateur field of tennis. Companies like Yonex, Fischer, and ProKennex have lines of racquets that are only intended for advanced players. Staying true to such a high level of play has turned out to have its advantages even among the less advanced market. Most of the professional tours, mens’ and women’s, use Yonex and ProKennex racquets, which are becoming popular among the amateur ranks despite their desired intent to be used only by more skilled players. One suggested reasoning by the study in Stanford states that “...many tennis newcomers feel the need to use professional racquets and get use to them right away,” (Howards 2). Even though that might be the case, Prince and Wilson, the two dominating forces in tennis manufacturing today, still have the edge on all other competition when it comes to the annual gross sales. “Wilson had an ever-increasing profit of $1. 4 billion in 1997, followed by Prince who earned $1.1 billion that same It may seem that technology has only helped the beginners and less advanced tennis players gain an edge in their performance. After all, graphite, the material which is being used by professional on the tour and more skilled amateur players, has been implemented some twenty years ago. As much as it may appear that way, the less skilled players are not the only ones who have significantly improved their level of game. With new racquet shapes and lengths, advanced players are able to choose a racquet that will fit them best and their game. There are many different types of players today, and new philosophies on how tennis should be played are always appearing. Some racquets are designed for power servers while others are designed for players who primarily rely on their ground strokes. As mentioned, players can even choose a racquet that is more suitable for a certain type of court surface. At the same time, some racquets will be better for more aggressive players, and some for the more defensive ones. In any case, today’s tennis is much more advanced than tennis from thirty and even twenty years ago. Because players have a racquet that reflects their game the best, their hits are harder and more precise. Although intensive training and expansion of tennis around the world have been some of the primary reason for such a high level of tennis play in the past two decades, racquet technology has an undeniable and deserved right to be one of the reasons that improved the game of tennis. Indeed, record-breaking power hits and serves have been recorded in great amounts, particularly in the past Still, tennis racquets are not the only apparel that is responsible for the better performance of today’s tennis players. Tennis strings would have to be classified as the second most deserving tennis apparel that has helped today’s tennis players. Before World War II, tennis strings consisted of a highly strengthened and thin sailor rope, or sometimes even a pig skin rope. After the war, however, plastics made a great impact on the tennis world. Up until the late 1970’s, nylon strings have been used as the only type of strings available. The strings were made from a smooth, two part braid of hard plastic, which was blue and made up 30 percent of the strings, and a synthetic nylon that covered the remaining 70 percent of the overall string. Wilson was the first to introduce an all-nylon string with kevlar coating around it. By applying a layer of kevlar onto the string, Wilson almost tripled the life span of if its new tennis strings. Kevlar, however, had its disadvantages which made many players reluctant to use it. It was hard to apply kevlar coating evenly on the racquet, and even if that was done, the hitting area would often lose the coating first, leaving the racquet vibrating far more than usual. Vibrations were known to often occur only hours after playing with new, kevlar-coated strings. Although these vibrations were not always present, one out of five racquets was estimated to have an unevenly applied kevlar coating during that time. An Australian tennis company called Gamma, which focused on manufacturing tennis strings only, came up with the solution to this problem in 1985. By applying kevlar over a nylon string and then wrapping it into another layer of nylon fibers, the racquets were vibration free, and had a longer lasting life at the same time. Gamma would further pioneer its research in the string business by introducing natural and synthetic gut strings to the tennis market. Natural gut strings are made out of plastic which has been exposed to extensive melting. Synthetic gut strings go through the same process but are also wrapped into multifiber threads which ensure longer lasting life and add more spin when hitting the ball. Gamma did not have a serious competition in the string business until 1988, when a French company called Babolat, introduced a new implementation of kevlar along with multi-polyamid wrap called the Kevlar Gear. This breakthrough technology is widely used by the more advanced players, as well as professionals. “The Kevlar Gear main string combines the tremendous durability of Kevlar with the revolutionary sharp gear teeth that bite the ball and create unbelievable spin and control,” (Boatner 67). Gamma introduced its own version the following year, but had over 50 percent less sales than Babolat company, which continued introducing new lines of string technology in 1990, with gut polyamid wrapped and gut fiber coated strings. The main advantages of these two strings was the implementation of a cheaper gut nylon, as oppose to the high-maintenance kevlar. Gut nylon has proven to be just as strong as kevlar, yet it produces better spin and control for the players. By wrapping gut into polyamide nylon or a fiber coating, the final string had a long lasting life, as well as great grip on the ball. The strings were especially popular among the professional players on the ATP and WTA tours. Another company, American Ashway, came with a new concept of making strings more durable when it comes to their tension. All strings are strung very hard on the racquets to ensure better control. The way to measure how strung a string is, is measure on how much pressure the string has on the head frame of a racquets. This is measured in pounds or kilograms. Average racquets are strung at around 60 pounds or 26 kilograms. Professional players tend to have it strung higher than that because the higher strung the racquets is, the more responsive and accurate are the shots of a player. The problem, however, is not that strings would brake, but that they would relax during the match and seriously affect players performance. If a player brakes a string, he or she knows it right away, so the player simply changes racquets and continues playing. But knowing how stung or unstrung a racquet is, can be very difficult, especially during a match. Ashway, thus, set out to create strings that would have a long-lasting life when it comes to their original tension. In 1992, Ashway introduced a long line of tension-lasting strings which were made out of a very rough synthetic gut that provided great control as well. These strings were an instant success all over the world, and Ashway rose as one of the main string makers on the market today. Babolat, however, immediately started experimenting with technologies which would make their strings even better. In 1996 they revealed a whole new technology which quickly caught up with the players and is currently the best-selling string on the market. Fiber Ace is one of Babolat's new French-made Fibergut strings using their exclusive Air Jet technology. “It's a multifilament string with 1120 high resilience fibers and co-polymer matrix. Its main benefits, according to Babolat, are excellent playability and control, combined with unmatched tension maintenance for a multifiber synthetic string,” (Larin 2). Major tennis companies such as Wilson, Prince, Head, Yonex and others, introduced their own lines of these strings, but the popularity as well as leading gross sales of strings remain with the companies like Babolat, Gamma, and Ashway. Grips have been an interesting part of tennis apparel, because although they have changed significantly in the past 50 years, majority of the today’s players still use one type of grip which has been invented over 20 years ago. Up until 1978, grips have been made out of refined pig skin or synthetic leather. That same year, however, an independent American TournaGrip company came out with its adaptation of disposable grips. Made out of a super-obsorbent synthetic textile and nylon material, this grip provided great moisture absorption, aside from being a good grip for the player’s hands. Other companies, such as Wilson, Prince, Head, and Gamma, tried to overtake the market with numerous versions of high-tech nylon grips. Still, the simplicity, efficiency, and low cost of the TournaGrip has been unbeatable until now, and no one foresees Ironically enough, the tennis balls have be one aspect of tennis which has changed the least. Aside from changing color from white to bright green after color televisions became a regular part of today’s society, not much changed regarding the balls. Wilson, Dunlop and a division of Prince, called Penn, introduced numerous types of balls, but the only difference in any of them was simply the softness, not the material structure which consists of simple fiber textiles that were not any different than the ones 50 years ago who only had different type of glue in them. It must be pointed out that the harder the ball the higher the bounce and faster the game play is. It is simply up to the player or the tournament on which type of ball to use. Still, looking at a broad picture of tennis today, it is easy to see how much of an impact the technology had on the players and their performance. Aside from more choices, players have more access to those choices and are able to test equipment that will best suit them. Anyone today can go to a tennis store and test out and try as many racquets as desired, until they found the right one for them. It is an inevitable fact that technology in the real sense of the word impacted the tennis world tremendously. Materials such as titanium and hyper carbon which are used by NASA are regularly implemented and used as materials in racquet production. Even strings, such as Babolat’s Fiber Ace, uses French Air-Jet technology. As the years progress, the tennis world is bound to see more and more changes that will continue to improve players performance. The most rewarding part for the fans is the fact that the better the equipment and players’ performances are, the better and more exciting it is to watch. Bibliography: Works Cited Boatner, Mark. Tennis World. New York: McKay Books, 1998. Coggins, Jack. Technology in Sports Today. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1996. Howards, Michael. Tennis Timeline. [Online] Available http://www.tennis.com/ ^SPECIALS/1998/10/tech/timeline, October 7, 1998 Katcher, Philip. How Will We Go?. New York: Facts on File, 1995. Larin, James. Tennis Advancements. [Online] Available http://www.tennis-week. ^world/report/adv.htm, December 6, 1998. Wilson, Patrick. Tennis Today. [Online] Available http://www.mod.facts/10VT ^article/html, November 17, 1998.

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