The EVOLUTION OF the BALL AND the RACKET

the rackets,the tennis did not invent the racket. It appeared with the Play of Palm. For a long time, one played the play of Palm either with the hands, or with gloves. But towards the end of XVth century, the gloves were reinforced with kinds of rope). ; because the hands became too painful (Esteufs were made out of leather and were filled of lime and sand). Then the beaters out of wooden made their appearance but they remained rudimentary. It is only towards 1505 that one created the first racket made out of wooden (ash) equipped with a lengthy handle and with a rope in bowels of sheep. It weighed approximately 400 grams and measured 66 centimetres.

The sieve was practically spherical or square and measured, in general, 16,2 centimetres in width and 16,5 centimetres in length. With the passing of the centuries, the rackets knew various forms, sizes and weight. But, in general, they approximately kept the same morphological characteristics of the racket of XVIth century. In In 1930, the new glues for wood allow raquettierses to manufacture rackets with several types of wood (Ash, to Drown, Beech, Maple). They resist the stronger tensions and permit to have and make it possible to have a better balance between power and control of the ball. It is necessary to await the appearance of new materials to finally see a great change in the world of the racket. Little by little, the metal (steel, aluminium...) made its appearance in the Seventies. But the metal rackets did not have any success. From 1980, the synthetic fibres (carbon, mixture of glass fibre...) make it possible to build at the same time light and powerful rackets. These new materials replace the rackets out of wooden. These later will disappear completely in 1984. With regard to dimensions, the rackets of today measure to the maximum 73,66 centimetres for the professionals and 81,80 centimetres for the amateurs (directives IFT of 1997). The sieve does not exceed 29,10 cm of width and 39,7 centimetres of height..

THE STRINGING
If the first racket dates back to the XVIth century, stringing(rope) appeared only at the XIXth century. The first stringing is invented,in December 31, 1868, by Lister, an English surgeon. He manufactured bowels starting from thin straps taken on the peritoneum of an ox and the small intestine of a sheep. In 1875, Bussey, an English manufacturer of racket, asks BABOLAT, a Lyons manufacturer of musics strings, if it is possible to twist rackets of tennis starting from strings of violoncello. The first tests are satisfactory. The first synthetic string was born! Eversince this nylon string is used for all the rackets of tennis.

The BALL
the first balls of tennis are those of the play of Palm (Esteufs).From the XIIth century to the XVcentury, the esteufs, initially, are made of animals hairs and of chokes of wool. In order to harden them, one decides, in the second time, to manufacture them with leather which one "stuffed" of sand and lime. But this principle left painful hands after the matches. In 1481, Louis XI interdict the use of these esteufs and requires that one reuse those made out of choke laine.Little by little, towards the XVIIIth century, the esteufs are conceived with the cloths and bound with strings. The ball thus is obtained. But the ball did not receive the awaited success because the strings did not hold. In the XIX thcentury, rubber makes its appearance. The rubber balls appear in 1870 and rebound on grass. At the same moment tennis is born and the first balls of tennis are thus out of rubber. In 1877, at the time of first Wimbledon, a player of Palm, John Mayer Heathcothe, suggests sticking a wool cloth envelope on the balls in order to obtain a better rebound on the grass.In the twenties, the ball of tennisout of rubber under pressure (current ball) made its appearance. It becomes the official ball of tennis. From 1978, it gives up its white color to become yellow.

Roland Gaross