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Tennis

From the first edition of the modern Olympic Games in Athens in 1896, tennis has been part of the Olympic sports. After being absent from the Olympic program for over fifty years, the discipline made its comeback at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, alongside the introduction of table tennis. Wheelchair tennis was first contested at the Barcelona Paralympic Games in 1992, either in ‘Open’ Class (for athletes with normal arm function) or in ‘Quad’ Class is for athletes with additional restrictions.

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Early History of Composites

1932: Originally, solid wooden tennis rackets were used, but Dunlop introduced in 1932 a kind of composite concept with the multiply laminated Dunlop MaxPly rackets
1960’s: First composites as an external reinforcing ply on wooden tennis rackets (Slazenger, 1961; Wilson, 1966)
1970’s: First full carbon fibre composite rackets Phantom of Slazenger (1974) and the TR10 by Rossignol (1977)
The world’s first complete glass fibre composite racket was introduced by the PDP Sports Company around 1975
1980’s: Most tennis racket brands changed to carbon fibre composites, like Dunlop (John McEnroe, Steffi Graf)(fig.1), Prince (André Agassi, Monica Seles), Wilson (Pete Sampras, Roger Federer ), Head (Novak Djokovic) and Babolat (Raphael Nadal)
1983: Instead of UD-carbon plies, Wilson started using braids “50% aramid/carbon fibre inner braid (and 100% carbon outer braid) … aramid is effective in damping frame shock and vibration

Recent Developments

All professional tennis racquet built from carbon fibre composites, even using most advanced high strength and high modulus carbon fibres like TORAYCA™ T1100G and M40X (fig.2)
Natural fibres (mainly flax) are introduced for increased vibration damping (fig.3)
- First by Artengo (2010),
- 2023 by Babolat in their newest Babolat Pure Aero, using flax NF2 Tech (EcoTechnilin)
- Full flax fibre tennis raquet under development by Head
Hybrid reinforcements for improving stiffness and damping: “Natural Tennis” by Dunlop (fig.4), combining high modulus carbon fibres and copper wires embedded in silicone
In table tennis , strict rules apply:
- At least 85% of the blade by thickness shall be of natural wood
- An adhesive layer may be reinforced with carbon fibre, glass fibre or compressed paper or even basalt fibre (fig.5), not thicker than 7.5% of the total thickness or 0.35mm
Stiga (Sweden) in 2023 introduced their innovative, hexagonal shaped “Cybershape Carbon” table tennis bat (fig.6)

WHEELCHAIR TENNIS

Carbon fibre composites (CFRP) are used to reduce weight and increase speed and maneuverability:
- wheelchair structure: a combination of aluminium and carbon fibre composite tubes, seat and axis is often CFRP (fig. 7)
- Often, also CFRP wheels are used (fig. 8)
Para table tennis (fig.9 ) is played since the first Games were held in Rome in 1960 by athletes with a wide range of impairments, classified into 11 classes . Athletes are either standing or in a wheelchair (with simpler design compared to lawn tennis).