:tennis ball

File:cmglee_tennis_ball_interior.jpg

File:Tennis ball blanks and felt.jpg]]

Modern tennis balls must conform to certain size, weight, deformation, and bounce criteria to be approved for regulation play. The International Tennis Federation (ITF) defines the official diameter as {{convert|6.54-6.86|cm|in|abbr=in}}. Balls must have masses in the range {{convert|56.0-59.4|g|oz|abbr=in}}. A tennis ball generally has {{Convert | 12 | psi | kPa atm | sigfig = 1}} more of a nitrogen and oxygen mixture than the sea level ambient air pressure.{{Cite web |last=Communications |first=Grainger Engineering Office of Marketing and |title=Tennis Ball Facts |url=https://van.physics.illinois.edu/ask/listing/955 |access-date=2023-04-01 |website=van.physics.illinois.edu |language=en}}{{Cite web |last=TennisCompanion |date=2017-11-18 |title=Ball in Tennis {{!}} Definition, Examples, and Common Questions About The Ball |url=https://tenniscompanion.org/ball/ |access-date=2023-04-01 |website=TennisCompanion |language=en-US}} Yellow and white are the only colors approved by the ITF. Most balls produced are a fluorescent color known as "optic yellow", first introduced in 1972 following research demonstrating they were more visible on television. What color to call the ball is mildly controversial; one poll showed that a little less than half of people consider this color yellow, while a slight majority consider it green.{{Cite web |last=Koren |first=Marina |date=2018-02-15 |title=What Color Is a Tennis Ball? |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/02/what-color-tennis-ball-green-yellow/523521/ |access-date=2023-08-07 |website=The Atlantic |language=en}}

Tennis balls are filled with air and are surfaced by a uniform felt-covered rubber compound. Tennis ball felts comprise wool, nylon, and cotton in a mixture surrounding the rubber edge.{{Cite journal |last=Fischetti |first=Mark |date=April 2005 |title=Uniform Variety |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/scientificamerican0405-94 |journal=Scientific American |volume=292 |issue=4 |pages=94–95 |doi=10.1038/scientificamerican0405-94 |pmid=15915818 |bibcode=2005SciAm.292d..94F |issn=0036-8733}} The felt delays flow separation in the boundary layer which reduces aerodynamic drag and gives the ball better flight properties.{{cite web|url=http://www.princeton.edu/~asmits/Bicycle_web/sportsballs.html|title=Golf Balls, Cricket Balls and Tennis Balls|date=5 October 2005|publisher=Princeton University|access-date=2009-10-20}}Dr. Rabi Mehta of NASA-Ames, entitled Aerodynamics of sportsballs, Annual Review of Fluid Mechanics, 17:151–189, 1985. Often, the balls will have a number in addition to the brand name. This helps distinguish one set of balls from another of the same brand on an adjacent court.{{cite web|url=http://tenniscoachsingapore.com/colors-numbers-on-tennis-balls/|title=Colors & Numbers on Tennis Balls|date=16 March 2013 |publisher=Epic Tennis Academy|access-date= 2 September 2015}}

Tennis balls begin to lose their bounce as soon as the tennis ball can is opened. Tennis balls lose bounciness because the air inside the ball is pushing harder when a can is opened compared to when a ball is packaged. When packaged, the pressure in the can equally pushes the ball from the outside as the air inside the balls, preserving the pressure inside. When a tennis ball is unpackaged, its frequent use allows for air to escape from the ball.{{Cite web |last=Labmate |first=International |title=How Long Before a Tennis Ball Loses its Bounce? And Where Does It Go? |url=https://www.labmate-online.com/news/news-and-views/5/breaking-news/how-long-before-a-tennis-ball-loses-its-bounce-and-where-does-it-go-nbsp/35290 |access-date=2023-04-01 |website=Labmate Online |language=en}} They can be tested to determine their bounce. Modern regulation tennis balls are kept under pressure (approximately two atmospheres) until initially used; balls intended for use at high altitudes have a lower initial pressure, and inexpensive practice balls are made without internal pressurization. A ball is tested for bounce by dropping it from a height of {{convert|254|cm|in|abbr=in}} onto concrete; a bounce between {{convert|135|and|147|cm|in|abbr=in}} is acceptable if taking place at sea-level and {{convert|20|C|F}} with relative humidity of 60%; high-altitude balls have different characteristics when tested at sea level.{{cite web |date=2023 |title=ITF Approved tennis balls, classified surfaces & recognised courts — A guide to product & test methods |url=https://www.itftennis.com/media/4420/2023-technical-booklet.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20240719230529/https://www.itftennis.com/media/4420/2023-technical-booklet.pdf |archive-date=19 July 2024 |access-date=5 October 2024 |website=International Tennis Federation}}

File:Tennis_Ball.jpg

The ITF's "Play and Stay" campaign aims to increase tennis participation worldwide by improving how starter players are introduced to the game. The ITF recommends a progression that focuses on a range of slower balls and smaller court sizes to introduce the game to adults and children effectively. The slowest balls, marked with red, or using half-red felt, are oversized and unpressurized or made from foam rubber. The next, in orange, are unpressurized normal-sized balls. The last, with green, are half pressured normal sized.

File:Tennis balls, advertisement, 19th century.jpg

Lawn tennis, as the modern game was originally known, was developed in the early 1870s as a new version of the courtly game of real tennis. England banned the importation of real tennis balls, playing cards, dice, and other goods in the Importation (No. 2) Act 1463 (3 Edw. 4. c. 4).{{cite book|title=Board and table game antiques|last=Bell|first=R. C.|publisher=Osprey Publishing|year=1981|isbn=0852635389}} In 1480, Louis XI of France forbade the filling of tennis balls with chalk, sand, sawdust, or earth, and stated that they were to be made of good leather, well-stuffed with wool.Morgan, Roger (1995): Tennis, The Development of The European Ball Game, {{ISBN|0-9510251-8-X}} Other early tennis balls were made by Scottish craftsmen from a wool-wrapped stomach of a sheep or goat and tied with rope. Those recovered from the hammer-beam roof of Westminster Hall during a period of restoration in the 1920s were found to have been manufactured from a combination of putty and human hair and were dated to the reign of Henry VIII.{{Cite web|url=https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/building/palace/westminsterhall/architecture/the-hammer-beam-roof-/|title=The Hammer Beam Roof|website=www.parliament.uk}} Other versions, using materials such as animal fur, rope made from animal intestines and muscles, and pine wood, were found in Scottish castles dating back to the 16th century.{{Citation needed|date=July 2010}} In the 18th century, {{convert|3/4|in|cm|abbr=on|order=flip}} strips of wool were wound tightly around a nucleus made by rolling several strips into a little ball.Cross, R. "Dynamic properties of tennis balls." Sports Engineering 2 (1999): 23-34. String was then tied in many directions around the ball, and a white cloth covering was sewn around the ball.{{Citation needed|date=July 2010}}

File:Vintage White tennis balls.png, original white tennis balls (Slazenger Lawn Tennis Balls)]]

In the early 1870s, lawn tennis arose in Britain through the pioneering efforts of Walter Clopton Wingfield and Harry Gem, often using Victorian lawns laid out for croquet. Wingfield marketed lawn tennis sets which included rubber balls imported from Germany. After Charles Goodyear invented vulcanised rubber, the Germans had been most successful in developing air-filled vulcanised rubber balls. These were light and coloured grey or red with no covering. John Moyer Heathcote suggested and tried the experiment of covering the rubber ball with flannel, and by 1882 Wingfield was advertising his balls as clad in stout cloth made in Melton Mowbray.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=44Vu3DdHFvsC&q=%22John+Moyer+Heathcote%22+tennis&pg=PA187|title=Tennis:Cultural History|first=Heiner|last=Gillmeister|date=October 1, 1998|publisher=A&C Black|isbn=9780718501952|via=Google Books}} Tennis balls were initially entirely made of rubber, but they were later refined by using flannel and stitching it around the core, which used to be filled with rubber. The tennis ball quickly switched to having a hollow core, using gas to pressurize the inside. Originally, tennis ball manufacturing was done by cutting vulcanized rubber sheets into a shape similar to that of a three-leaf clover. Before the formation of the rubber into a sphere (which was executed via machinery), chemicals that reacted to produce a gas were added to produce pressure into the hollow inside once the sphere was assembled. The switch to the modern method of joining two hemispheres was done to improve uniformity of wall thickness.{{Cite web |url=https://www.itftennis.com/media/2280/balls-history-of-tennis-balls.pdf |title=History of Tennis Balls|date=November 2019|access-date=2023-03-05 |publisher=International Tennis Federation}}

Until 1972, tennis balls were white (or sometimes black). In 1972, the International Tennis Federation introduced yellow balls, as these were easier to see on television, and these quickly became generally popular. Wimbledon continued using white balls until 1986.

{{Infobox UK legislation

| short_title = Importation (No. 2) Act 1463

| type = Act

| parliament = Parliament of England

| long_title = Certain merchandises not lawful to be brought ready into this realm.

| year = 1463

| citation = 3 Edw. 4. c. 4

| territorial_extent = {{ubli|England and Wales|Ireland}}

| royal_assent = 29 April 1463

| commencement = 29 April 1463{{efn|Start of session.}}

| repeal_date = 21 May 1816

| repealing_legislation = Importation (No. 4) Act 1816

| related_legislation = {{ubli|Repeal of Acts Concerning Importation Act 1822|Statute Law Revision Act 1863|Statute Law Revision (Ireland) Act 1872}}

| status = Repealed

| original_text = https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=pst.000017915526&seq=418

| collapsed = yes

}}

Before 1925, tennis balls were packaged in wrapped paper and paperboard boxes. In 1925, Wilson-Western Sporting Goods Company introduced cardboard tubes. In 1926, the Pennsylvania Rubber Company released a hermetically sealed pressurized metal tube that held three balls with a churchkey to open the top. Beginning in the 1980s, plastic (from recycled PET)[http://www.petresin.org/recycling.asp Recycling], PETRA (PET Resin Association), retrieved 21 July 2010 cans with a full-top pull-tab seal and plastic lid fit three or four balls per can. Pressureless balls often come in net bags or buckets since they need not be pressure-sealed.

File:Reciclaje pelotas de tenis - IMG 20200703 112826 762.jpg

Each year approximately 325 million balls are produced, which contributes roughly {{convert|20000|t|ST}} of waste in the form of rubber that is not easily biodegradable. Historically, tennis ball recycling has not existed. Balls from The Championships, Wimbledon are now recycled to provide field homes for the nationally threatened Eurasian harvest mouse.{{cite news|title='New balls, please' for mice homes|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/1406612.stm|access-date=6 November 2015|work=BBC News}}

The gift of tennis balls offered to Henry in Shakespeare's Henry V is portrayed as the final insult which re-ignites the Hundred Years' War between England and France."When we have match'd our rackets to these balls, We will, in France, by God's grace, play a set" Henry V, act 1, scene 2

John Webster also refers to tennis balls in The Duchess of Malfi."We are merely the stars' tennis balls, struck and banded/Which way please them" The Duchess of Malfi, act 5, scene 4

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{{Reflist}}

{{Commons category|Tennis balls}}

• [http://www.itftennis.com/technical/rules/history/index.asp#2006 International Tennis Federation's history of the rules of the tennis ball]. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151106083446/http://www.itftennis.com/technical/rules/history/index.asp#2006 |date=2015-11-06 }}.
• [http://www.itftennis.com/shared/medialibrary/pdf/original/IO_18858_original.PDF ITF Grand Slam Rules: Section I: The Ball] (PDF). {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151106083446/http://www.itftennis.com/shared/medialibrary/pdf/original/IO_18858_original.PDF |date=2015-11-06 }}.

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Category:Balls

Category:Tennis equipment

Category:Spherical objects