Change in tennis racquets



Tennis Racquets

Next I will look at how the racquets have changed since the start of tennis. Nowadays, racquets are specially made for people's styles of play. For example, in the Australian open final 2015, Andy Murray used a Radical Head racquet while Novak Djokovic used a Speed Head racquet. These have been specially tailored to suit these players' styles of play. Before, racquets were made out of wood and so they couldn't change them much to suit a specific player's style.
At first players didn't even have racquets! This was in the 11th and 12th centuries when monks invented the sport. They hit the ball with their hands against a wall or a small net. After this they began producing racquets made of wood. These were quite skinny and tall, and had a small rounded head



Towards the end of the 19th century, tennis racquets that were more like the racquets we know today. They weren't as tall, and had a larger hitting surface. However, the whole world of racquets was changed when the now famous tennis brand Wilson produced the first ever steel racquet in 1967. This followed small developments in production, like the use of fabric strings instead of pieces of animal gut, and making the racquet head bigger. The steel racquet was brought into general use by the pro Jimmy Connors who was one of the best players in the game at the time. He liked this racquet as it was lighter than the wood racquet so he was able to get more racquet head speed which in turn generated more speed and/or spin on the ball. Soon a larger racquet was developed when topspin began being used by players like Bjorn Borg. This is spin put on the top of the ball to bring it down. It is used to have more control over the ball and to keep the ball in play. The racquet was made wider, and this revolutionised the way that tennis was played all over the world.

Wooden racquet 

Head Radical racquet
 

Sources:
 http://www.faqs.org/sports-science/Sp-Tw/Tennis-Racquet-Construction.html
http://www.racquetdepot.co.uk/blog/how-tennis-racquets-have-changed-over-the-years/
http://www.tennisindustrymag.com/articles/2006/01/the_inch_that_changed_tennis_f.html
http://tennis.about.com/od/racquetsballsstringing/a/evolmodracquet.htm
Images:
http://img.tennis-warehouse.com/reviews/HGRP-1.jpg
http://www.polyvore.com/cgi/img-thing?.out=jpg&size=l&tid=44330922