The Game Changer: Tennis Racquet Evolution

The historical origins of modern tennis are still debated by scholars. By the 12th century, however, northern Europeans were playing similar games with a ball, originally using the bare hand as a paddle.

Dating to the late 17th or early 18th century, this battoir was used to play jeu de longue paume, another ball game that is ancesteral to the modern game of tennis. The battoir was used to strike a small ball into the opponent’s side of an open-ended court.

This print from the International Tennis Hall of Fame Museum's collection that dates to circa 1655 shows the game of jeu de longue paume and players using battoirs.

Court tennis is recognized as the precursor to modern lawn tennis. The games share numerous similarities, including the basic racquet design. However, court tennis racquets featured smaller, curved heads to better strike the smaller, denser court tennis ball.

Early lawn tennis racquets were constructed in similar methods to those made for court tennis, but were not as "thick". Throughout history, racquet manufacturers have experimented with different styles of frame shape, materials, strings and stringing patterns, and handle shape. 

Early tennis racquets resembled court tennis racquets and were manufactured the same way. A strip of flexible yet strong wood was steamed around a mold to shape the head of the racquet. The two ends were joined to form the handle, and holes were drilled for the strings.

In 1922, a new racquet design came onto the market. It was named the Dayton Steel and invented by former champion (and Hall of Famer) Bill Larned. This racquet had a painted steel frame attached to a wood handle and was strung not with gut but with twisted steel piano wire.

The streamlined design had less air resistance and made a player's control easier. One of the most noticeable traits of this racquet was the  "pinging" sound made when the ball was struck. The Dayton Steel racquet remained popular with players throughout the 1920s and 1930s.

The heyday of the laminated wood racquet was from the 1940s through the 1960s. Manufacturers made the current laminated racquets with many thin layers bent cold and glued together by intense pressure. These modern laminated racquet frames could have up to 18 layers.

Head, a ski company, entered the tennis world in 1969 with a composite racquet made of plastic and metal. Developed with Arthur Ashe, it became a global hit throughout the 70s and 80s.

The next innovation that drastically changed the tennis racquets' look, feel, and design was Howard Head's American patent in 1976 for the oversized tennis racquet: the "Prince Classic".

The midsize tennis racquet, invented in the mid-1970s, quickly became the best-selling and most popular size globally by 1980 and was favored by many professional players.

This Wilson "Pro Staff 7.1" racquet was used by Stephanie Graf at the 1999 Roland-Garros Championships.

Composite tennis racquets had taken over the market and are the standard for today’s models. These composites included glass fiber in epoxy; glass fiber blended with graphite fibers or carbon fibers in epoxy; graphite fibers in epoxy; and other different combinations.