Roland Garros: a brief history of the tennis racket
The first rackets borrowed their design from the ancient sport of real tennis. The Australian national maritime museum
Today, the serves of tennis champions are 17.5% faster than those of players in the 70s, according to a study by Sheffield Hallam University. But if the training of athletes has changed, this performance is not unrelated to technological developments and racket design.
The first tennis rackets – a sport adapted from the famous tennis game, very popular in France were largely similar. They were made of wood, with long handles and small asymmetrical heads, to better hit balls that bounced rather low in those days. Until the end of the 60s of the 20th century, wooden rackets were still the most common, even with the appearance of the first reinforcements made of fiber-reinforced composite materials.
Over the years, the heads of the snowshoes get bigger, while the passes get shorter. Sam Hojati
Great upheavals never come alone. In 1968, tennis changed paradigm, with the Open Era which allowed professionals and amateurs to compete together. On the snowshoe side too, the situation is changing: new structures are appearing, made up of graphite, aluminum, steel, metal or alloys of all these components. Racket heads are getting bigger, while necks are getting shorter, as shown by this survey published by two English universities, Manchester Metropolitan University and Sheffield Hallam University, in collaboration with the International Tennis Federation. This evolution gradually asserted itself in the 70s and 80s, to the point of pushing the ITF in 1979 to regulate the size of rackets, to prevent technological developments from radically changing the nature of the game.
Not all experiments during this period were successful, however. Metal, for example. ” At first used to overcome the problem of wood frames warping due to moisture, it was found to offer less damping than wood, even more vibration in case the player misses the ball, and often damage the cords at the point of contact »explained in 2020 Thomas Allen, lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University, commenting on a study on the evolution of rackets and its influence on the sport of tennis, in partnership with Prince.
The famous racket brand also marked the era, with its classic, released in 1976. Built in aluminum, it featured a much larger head than its wooden predecessors, as well as plastic eyelets to overcome the problem of metal damage to the strings, forever altering tennis racquets. This innovation, at the dawn of the 80s, made wood officially obsolete. Snowshoes are now made from fiber reinforced composite materials: carbon fiber, fiberglass, aramid…
An old Dunlop Max 200G advert featuring John McEnroe. dunlop
In 1980 Dunlop launched the legendary Dunlop Max 200G, used by John McEnroe and Steffi Graf. In 1983, Wilson responded with the Pro Staff, which became Pete Sampras’ first choice. ” In general, the greater freedom of design offered by composite materials pushes the development of “widebody” rackets, which are characterized by larger cross-sections around the center of the frame, in order to give more rigidity in the region of maximum flexion. and hit the ball faster“, according to Thomas Allen. One of the most telling examples is undoubtedly the Wilson Profile, released in 1987.
The advent of 3D printers in the early 2010s gave new impetus to the development of racket production. Alicja Gancarz
On this line, again Wilson in 1990 designed the Hammers and Head made its triumphal entry with the Radical. Since then, the snowshoes have maintained a more or less similar design, and efforts have then been concentrated on the research of materials, to guarantee more lightness and aerodynamics. Hence models like the 2003 Babolat Pure Drive, with which Andy Roddick won the US Open that year, and the 2005 Prince O3, which featured much larger string holes for more speed. The advent of 3D printers in the early 2010s gave new impetus to the evolution of racquets and the media went wild with headlines announcing the arrival of “the racquet of the future“. In this sense, the presentation in 2013 of a prototype made by CRP Technology by two students from the Academy of Fine Arts in Rimini, caused a stir, the prototype being made as a monolithic block.
The first racket printed in 3D, from a single block.
But in 60 years of research in terms of design and technology, there has been no shortage of bizarre products. Like the Blackburn Double Strung which featured not one, but two string sieves. Or The Handler, a racket with two handles designed for two-handed backhand players, as well as the Neoxxline Carving Star, equipped with a rotating head and a curved handle.
The Jenro, with its removable and replaceable head, also deserves its place in this list. But it is certainly the Macgregor Bergelin Longstring that will mark the history of the weird racket. This racquet features a semi-octagonal head and diagonal strings. Unheard of, neither before nor after.
An old poster advertising the Macgregor Bergelin Longstring. Bergeline
In recent years, luxury brands have also taken an interest in the racquet as an accessory and have begun to present their version, pushed at the same time by the fashion for sportswear and the rise of tenniscore.
That of Prada, in total black, is sold today at €1,650.00. A little cheaper, around 725 euros, costs the racket by Yves Saint Laurent in collaboration with Wilson, also in black and adorned with a star motif on the heads.
Kylie Jenner with her Chanel Oak Tennis Racquet. Kylie Jenner
Chanel’s Oak Tennis Racquet, released in 2011 as a limited edition with only 37 on the market, is made of red oak with a leather handle and features the signature logo in the strings, as well as another Chanel trademark stamp on the framework. Nothing less than Kylie Jenner uses it for her amateur matches, as shown in some photos posted on Instagram in 2020.
www.cosmopolitan.fr /histoire-du-tennis-feminin,2081924.asp
The history of women’s tennis and its evolution
Tennis is one of the rare sports to have integrated the women’s practice from its inception. Just like its male alternative, it will evolve over the years and will continue to be redesigned by the destinies of its many champions.
The beginnings of women’s tennis
Although it has its origins in the famous palm gameappeared in France during the medieval period, the modern tennis was born in England in the 19th century. It was Major Walter Clopton Wingfield who imagined the “Sphairistike”, a Greek word meaning the art of the ball. The rules of the game were published in A Portable Court of Playing Tennis and in 1874 he marketed the first kit comprising two rackets, a net and balls. At the time, these were made of rubber because they bounced better on grass. And at that time, women play tennis at garden parties and have the opportunity to face women as well as men.
It was also during this period, more precisely in 1877, that the Wimbledon tournament was born. However, women are not welcome on the courts and it will be necessary to wait two years before the players can play matches during an official tournament, in 1879, in Dublin, during the Irish Open. At Wimbledon, the tennis players participate from 1884 but will have to wait until 1897 to have the right to register for the French Championship, the ancestor of the Roland Garros tournament. However, women will be present from the first editions of the Olympic Games, whether in Paris in 1900 in Paris or in London in 1908.
The first figure in women’s tennis is the champion Suzanne Lenglen. It is also the first to perform a professional international tour. She will win many prizes and mark the history of tennis. Today, the second main court at Roland Garros bears his name.
The evolution of women’s tennis
A bit later, Althea Gibson became the first black woman to win a Grand Slam title by winning at Roland Garros in 1956 and then at Wimbledon in 1957. The WTA, theTennis Players Association, was created in the 1970s and named Billie Jean King as its first president. Considered one of greatest tennis players of all time, the champion is mainly known for having won the battle of the sexes, an anthology match disputed against Bobby Riggs, a former macho and sexist world number one. Among the other great players of this time, we can also note the American Chris Evert, her rival Martina Navrátilová, the German Steffi Graf but also Monica Seles. A little later, it’s the turn of williams sisters to prevail on the courts.
Serena Williams alone will have reshuffled the cards in favor of women’s tennis and the place of black women in society. In particular, she will impose her style of dress, even if it will still bring her some warnings. In spite of a practice recognized since always or almost, it will be necessary all the same to await 2007 that the parity of the profits is completely adopted in the large tournaments. Today the women’s tennis remains less publicized than its male counterpart.
