In the sports world, where speed, skill and technology continue to have an increasing presence, one thinks back to earlier times and wonders, “Whatever happened to the wooden tennis net?”
Chances are there are many who can remember a game of tennis a few decades ago using one. Today, netball and party games are long a thing of the past, whose record-breaking speed is the baseline of the game in both women’s and men’s matches. Actually, to most of today’s players, wooden nets seem quite obsolete or perhaps even insufficient — far too slow, weak, and heavy for professional tennis players who are more than six meters tall (even on the women’s side).Also, many modern players are likely to find the wooden net to be much heavier to handle as opposed to the lighter, faster and stronger metal net.
So when did the wooden grid give way to the metal grid? To examine this fact, we must go back to the growth of the metal net, which evolved from the wooden edged toy, which played a leading role for more than a century.
Enter the Metal Racket
While the earliest examples of metal tennis rackets date back to at least the 1920s, the days of metal tennis rackets in modern tennis began in earnest in the late 1960s. . This is when Jimmy Connors won the Wilson T2000 with a steel net and Pancho Gonzalez won the 1969 Wimbledon with an aluminum net called the Spalding Smasher .
Such victories in the tennis world proved that the sport was a trend towards technological developments that directly affected the speed of the service and the style of the game. During the 1970s, metal tennis nets grew in popularity with professional and amateur tennis players alike.
The 1970s: Metal Versus Wood
Howard patented an aluminum net head in 1974. This aluminum net head had a surface that was almost twice the size of other tennis nets and tennis nets. aluminum entered the market in 1976. The high net was soon favored by many professional tennis players, who comparatively required the speed, strength and light weight of a metal net versus a wooden net. more skilful and dexterous in the handling of players than iron hardware.
After all, wooden nets serve much heavier and generally slower than those made of metal in the same hands. Although wooden nets were rendered almost obsolete in professional tennis by the late 1970s, there were still some players who proved that wooden nets were not only competitive but could still win matches.
1981’s Wimbledon: The Wooden Racks Final Hurrah
Undoubtedly, the swan of the wooden net came to the Wimbledon tournament in 1981, when John McEnroe used a Dunlop Maxply wood to beat five-time champion Bjorn Borg that year’s famous Wimbledon men’s singles final match. In the same tournament, Chris Evert won the women’s final with Jack Kramer. 1981 was the last moment of glory for the wooden tennis net as the last year was the wooden tennis net that won the Wimbledon finals.
Metal tennis has since dominated all corners of professional tennis, with the last wooden racket playing at Wimbledon in 1987. Bjorn Borg, who just lost to the popular (and entertaining) John McEnroe in an epic 1981 Wimbledon match, made a brief comeback. in the early 1990s, with the announcement of a wooden tennis net from the 1991 Monte Carlo Open match. He quickly lost that event in line against a row of fifty-second players and wearing a graphic net.
Although metal tennis nets have generally been chosen by players both professional and amateur for thirty years now, some new Wooden tennis nets are still found on the market for those who still prefer the feel and game of a wooden net.
Resources:
Infoplease. “Tennis, Anyone?” http://www.infoplease.com/spot/00wimbledon1.html
Li, Zehnyu. “Science in Tennis.” People’s Daily Online. 27 December 2006. 24 November 2007.
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Sawai, Akshay. “Spindle material.” Hindustan Times 6 July 2007. 25 November 2007. http://www.hindustantimes.com/storypage/storypage.html= ;MatchType1;=I&SeriesID1;=1157&PrimaryID;=4602& Headline;=Material+will
Tenner, Edward. Tennis and the Revenge of the Technological Revolution http://www.primitivism.com/tennis.htm.
