Tennis is one of the major sports on the international calendar. In terms of the equipment required, it is a simple game involving a number of balls, a net and the all important recquet.
The tennis racquet has seen its share of evolution since French monks started playing the game in the 11th and 12th centuries. Initially the game was played with bare hands with the ball being hit against a wall, much like handball. This was a little too painful and players tried variations such as wearing a glove with webbing between the fingers to wooden paddles.
The 14th century saw the advent of the wooden racquet, an invention generally credited to the Italians and by 1500 racquets were widely used. This is how it stayed until 1874 when Major Walter C. Wingfield registered his patent in London for equipment and rules for outdoor (the game till then had been played indoors) lawn tennis.
For the next hundred odd years, the wooden racquet hardly saw any change until they were replaced by the metal racquet in 1967, when Wilson Sporting became the first to introduce the popular T2000. Jimmy Connors used this racquet for much of the 1970s. Other popular racquets of that era were the Prince Classic and Prince Pro. These racquets were more flexible and powerful than their predecessors but unpredictable in terms of where the ball would end up once it hit the strings, because of the metal frame bending upon impact.
A stiffer material was needed and found in the form of a mixture of carbon fibers bound by a plastic resin.Popularly known as 'graphite' (these racquets weren't true graphite) they soon became known as the best racquets in the sport. the most popular early graphite racquet was the Dunlop Max 200G used by John McEnroe and Steffi Graf.
The evolution of the tennis racquet continues and new materials such as boron, titanium, fibreglass and Kevlar to name a few are being tried but always in a mix with graphite.
So as you watch the Australian Open, besides marvelling at the players and their skill, you can also marvel at the tennis racquet.

By : Shariq Haroon

Source : Dawn