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Anyone for tennis?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2016

Tom Roper
Tom Roper*
Affiliation:
School of Education, University of Leeds LS2 9JT
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Extract

The Independent [1], prior to the 1996 Wimbledon tournament, carried a story to the effect that Tennis had a problem. Rackets were getting longer and, so the International Tennis Federation (ITF) claimed, rallies were getting shorter as the serve dominated. The story provided some surprising figures. The current limit to the length of a racket is 32 inches, but the longer rackets which are the cause of the problem are 29 inches, 2 inches longer than the standard racket. The article claimed that such rackets 'give players up to 14 per cent more power than standard models'. The article went further,

‘Michael Chang of the United States, placed fourth in the world, has been using a 29 in. racquet (sic) since 1994, and says it has been key in raising his ranking.’ [1]

Type
Articles
Information
The Mathematical Gazette , Volume 83 , Issue 497 , July 1999 , pp. 199 - 209
Copyright
Copyright © The Mathematical Association 1999

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References

1. Arthur, Charles, Tennis stars at full stretch to serve faster that ever, The Independent (15 June 1996) p. 5.Google Scholar
2. Advertisement feature, Dunlop leads world technology breakthrough, Serve and Volley 15 (Jan/Feb.) p. 43.Google Scholar
3. Daish, C. B., The Physics of Ball Games Hodder and Stoughton (1981).Google Scholar
4. de Mestre, N., The Mathematics of Projectiles in Sport Cambridge University Press (1990).Google Scholar
5. Brody, H., Physics of the tennis racket II: the ‘sweet spot’, The American Journal of Physics, 49 (September 1981) pp. 816–819.Google Scholar
6. Head, H., U.S. Patent 3999756 (28 December 1976).Google Scholar
7. Knight, Jonathan, Game, set and match, New Scientist (6 September 1997) p. 15.Google Scholar
8. Cross, R., The dead spot of a tennis racket, The American Journal of Physics, 65 (August 1997) pp. 754–764.Google Scholar