History of tennis ball

The first tennis balls date back to the 15th century. They were made of materials commonly available at that time, such as human hair, horse hair or wool wrapped in leather. Other versions of tennis balls consisted of sheep or goat stomachs wrapped in wool and caught with a string, usually made of animal intestines. In the 18th century, balls were made by rolling pieces of wool into a ball and then tightly wrapping it with string. The "interior" prepared in this way was additionally wrapped in white fabric. In 1870, rubber was first used to make a tennis ball. The balls of that time were filled with air and were not covered with fabric. Then a ball was wrapped in flannels, and in 1890 they began to be produced in this form. Another improvement was the addition of an outer layer of felt.White balls were played until 1972, when the ITF introduced yellow balls. The decision to change the color was made based on scientific research which showed that yellow balls are more visible to the audience watching the matches on TV. However, traditional white balls continued to be played at Wimbledon until 1986.




https://tennisnerd.net/history/the-history-of-tennis-balls/28277

https://riverroadtenniscentre.com.au/the-history-of-the-tennis-ball/

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