superstition
Hall of Fame
1. All wood - most of tennis' history. A few rare metal racquets were made, but never caught on. Wood racquets usually have very small heads and dense string patterns.
2. Fiberglass is laminated on wood for some added stiffness. Wilson racquets call this a "speed flex fibre face". The all-wood head size is referred to as "standard" when larger heads are introduced later (mid, midplus, oversize, super-oversize).
3. Wilson releases the steel T-2000 and Connors starts winning with it. People begin buying them and aluminum models are also made available. For instance, Seamco's competition for the Wilson T series was a thick aluminum "Ken Rosewall" model. Many players continue to use wood.
4. Oversize racquets are released and become popular, mainly with amateurs. The Prince Pro and other aluminum models become popular.
5. Graphite is laminated on wood for more added stiffness than fiberglass. These wood composites are short-lived in the market, although very popular for a time. They're replaced by all-graphite models. Sometime before the emergence of mainstream all-graphite racquets, substitutes for wood are tried, like all fiberglass racquets, and resins with boron.
6. All graphite models begin to quickly displace wood and metal racquets. Many early graphite models have a large percentage of fiberglass and other materials to provide flexibility/comfort and keep the manufacturing cost down.
7. Ceramic threatens to become dominant, but doesn't last long in the market.
8. Various tweaks (widebody, longbody, mono shaft) become the way racquet makers differentiate their products as graphite has displaced other materials. Other materials are generally only a minor portion of a racquet (such as 20% at most). Kevlar and fiberglass provde to be the secondary materials of choice. Aluminum racquets are no longer made for serious players, just for department stores.
9. Racquet heads get larger on average, beams get thicker, racquets become stiffer, racquets become lighter, average grip size shrinks, gut is displaced by polyester, etc. Injury, as racquets add increased power to the game and hard courts replace grass, becomes a critical problem for the WTA tour. Serve and volley is relegated to second-class status. The tweaks of racquet designs become more esoteric, like "liquid metal", as racquets are powerful and stiff and there seems to be little left to change. Some technologies promise added comfort and elbow safety, while others promise more power and control at the same time.
10*. Tennis is re-balanced by returning to wood composites which allow the benefits of wood, such as flexibility/shock absorption/weight/power reduction to be combined with the stiffness of a percentage of other materials such as graphite. This allows the ball to be slowed down, making serve and volley viable again, while also allowing racquet heads to be made larger than the all-wood "standard". In conjunction with this change, hard courts are banned for professional tournaments and replaced with grass and clay.
*it would be nice
2. Fiberglass is laminated on wood for some added stiffness. Wilson racquets call this a "speed flex fibre face". The all-wood head size is referred to as "standard" when larger heads are introduced later (mid, midplus, oversize, super-oversize).
3. Wilson releases the steel T-2000 and Connors starts winning with it. People begin buying them and aluminum models are also made available. For instance, Seamco's competition for the Wilson T series was a thick aluminum "Ken Rosewall" model. Many players continue to use wood.
4. Oversize racquets are released and become popular, mainly with amateurs. The Prince Pro and other aluminum models become popular.
5. Graphite is laminated on wood for more added stiffness than fiberglass. These wood composites are short-lived in the market, although very popular for a time. They're replaced by all-graphite models. Sometime before the emergence of mainstream all-graphite racquets, substitutes for wood are tried, like all fiberglass racquets, and resins with boron.
6. All graphite models begin to quickly displace wood and metal racquets. Many early graphite models have a large percentage of fiberglass and other materials to provide flexibility/comfort and keep the manufacturing cost down.
7. Ceramic threatens to become dominant, but doesn't last long in the market.
8. Various tweaks (widebody, longbody, mono shaft) become the way racquet makers differentiate their products as graphite has displaced other materials. Other materials are generally only a minor portion of a racquet (such as 20% at most). Kevlar and fiberglass provde to be the secondary materials of choice. Aluminum racquets are no longer made for serious players, just for department stores.
9. Racquet heads get larger on average, beams get thicker, racquets become stiffer, racquets become lighter, average grip size shrinks, gut is displaced by polyester, etc. Injury, as racquets add increased power to the game and hard courts replace grass, becomes a critical problem for the WTA tour. Serve and volley is relegated to second-class status. The tweaks of racquet designs become more esoteric, like "liquid metal", as racquets are powerful and stiff and there seems to be little left to change. Some technologies promise added comfort and elbow safety, while others promise more power and control at the same time.
10*. Tennis is re-balanced by returning to wood composites which allow the benefits of wood, such as flexibility/shock absorption/weight/power reduction to be combined with the stiffness of a percentage of other materials such as graphite. This allows the ball to be slowed down, making serve and volley viable again, while also allowing racquet heads to be made larger than the all-wood "standard". In conjunction with this change, hard courts are banned for professional tournaments and replaced with grass and clay.
*it would be nice
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