From wood to steel to fibre: The evolution of tennis racquets

Wimbledon men’s champion Carlos Alcaraz wielded a Babolat to overpower Novak Djokovic, who plays with a Head. Barbora Krejcikova used her Head to good effect to quell Jasmine Paoloni, who brandished a Yonex, in the women’s final.

Each tennis racquet is different even if it comes from the same manufacturer. Alcaraz’s Pure Aero 98, Rafael Nadal’s AeroPro Drive Original, Dominic Thiem’s Pure Strike and Holger Rune’s Aero VS are from Babolat, but they are different. It’s also true of other brands: Wilson, Head, Yonex, Dunlop or Tecnifibre.

All top professionals have racquets made to their specifications. Roger Federer, Nadal, Serena Williams and Iga Swiatek have their own signature racquets. Other players on the circuit get pro stock racquets, which are not sold in shops, and modify them to suit their gamestyle. Some add silicone in the handle, stick lead tape to make the head heavier and some like to have personally moulded handles. These changes are aimed at enhancing their game.

Modern racquets are products of science and technology. Manufacturers employ robotics and physics to design racquets and use space-age materials to make them. The most commonly used material now is graphite (a light weight carbon material), which gives the frame a stiff feel, making it a favourite of players who rely on pure power. A composite frame blends graphite with Kevlar, carbon fibre, titanium, tungsten and fibreglass, making it flexible enough for players, whose game is built on speed and accuracy.

In the early days of tennis, racquets were shaped like a teardrop, and they were made of wood with natural gut (cow gut) for strings. The design was borrowed from an older indoor sport called real or royal tennis.

The first proper lawn tennis racquet was designed in 1874 by British Army officer Major Walter Clopton Wingfield, who invented a game called “sphairistiké” — the first version of modern tennis. Racquets, made from ash or maple wood, were heavy (around 400-500gm), making it difficult to manoeuvre.

The first technological leap came in the mid-20th century with the development of laminated racquets. Layers of wood were glued together to make rackets lighter without loss of power, and it paved the way a transformation in playing technique as it was possible to impart more spin on the ball. Longer rallies were the result.

Wood remained the staple of racquets for more than a hundred years before steel and aluminium were used in the 20th century. Actually, manufacturers experimented with metal as early as the 1890s to replace wooden racquets which were prone to warping and breakage, but it never caught on.

In the 1920s, the Dayton Racquet Co. produced and marketed racquets with metal frames, according the tennisfame.com. Although these frames were popular into the 1940s, the metal shortage during the Second World War affected its production.

Metal racquets resurfaced a couple of decades later, and was first patented in 1957. Lighter in weight and more durable, they helped generate extra power, speed and spin with increased manoeuvrability.

Former French player Rene Lacoste developed the steel racquet T2000 in the 1960s and sold the design to Wilson, who launched it in 1967. It was a significant advancement in the evolution of racquets and soon Americans Clark Graebner and Billie Jean King were wielding it in the US National Championships. King’s grand slam triumph was the first in history with a non-wooden racquet.

“We made an absolute sensation of that racquet,” King said as she became the first person to win a major with a steel racquet. By the 70s, King went back to wood, but fellow American Jimmy Connors fell in love with the Wilson T2000. His rout of a wooden racquet-wielding Ken Rosewall in the 1974 Wimbledon final helped popularise the racquet.

Wooden racquets continued to be in use in the 70s in a market dominated by Dunlop, Slazenger, Wilson and Spalding. Between 1974 and 1981, Bjorn Borg claimed 11 Grand Slam singles titles — six French Open and Wimbledon, using a wooden Donnay racquet reinforced with composites for extra stiffness.

Connors’ success revolutionised racquet technology and pushed wood towards the exit. Yannick Noah and Chris Evert, who won the men’s and women’s French Open singles titles in 1983, became the last players to win a major with a wooden racquet. Soon aluminium was preferred over steel as manufacturers sought to make racquets lighter.

Racquet technology underwent a seachange with the introduction of graphite in the 1970s. The strong lightweight material helped create powerful racquets with a stiff frame that provided enhanced control and improved shock absorption.

Fibreglass, ceramics, plastics, graphite, and boron were some of the materials used to create early composite racquets. By 1980 composite racquets had taken over tennis. John McEnroe used the Dunlop Max200G, an early graphite racket, from 1983, and last wooden racquet appeared at Wimbledon in 1987.

Composite fibre has been a constant for over 30 years. Every racquet maker blends differing fibre types and resins to utilise their attributes to suit players of varying capabilities.

According to Tennisnerd website, modern racquets have minor updates in materials, larger head sizes and thicker beams. Racquets are much lighter with head sizes of 100 sq inches for more power, while popular racquets have beam thickness between 23-26 mm. Unlike older racquets which are very flexible (RA 50-60), the present ones are stiffer (65-75) to generate power, with open string beds (16×19) for better access to depth, pace and spin.

Midsize (90-93 sq inches) racquets, some with thin beams and tight string patterns (18×2) are still available in the market, the website said.

Strings! That’s another story.

Today’s players are faster, stronger, more accurate and hit at very high speeds. The sleek and light modern racquets allows for faster swing, and more power from higher stiffness and bigger head size provides larger margin for error. Tennis has become a faster, more dynamic, and more exciting sport.

What’s the new frontier in racquet material? Wood prevailed for nearly a century. Steel a little over a decade. Composite fibre’s run continues. That will last only until new materials and new technology come along.