How is a tennis racquet made?

Answer 1

Until 1965, all professional tennis rackets were made of wood. A steel tennis racket was patented in 1965 by the French player Rene Lacoste, and in 1968 the Spalding company marketed the first aluminum rackets. These metal rackets caught on gradually. What the metal rackets made possible was a change in design to allow a broader head. Wooden rackets could not be made wider or longer in the head without causing problems with the stringing: if the head was too broad, string tension became too great, and the racket did not play well. But the greater strength of metal frames could accommodate greater string tension. An oversized aluminum racket developed by Howard Head in the mid 1970s was at first scoffed at by professionals, but amateurs quickly discovered that they could hit better with it. The prime hitting area, or so called "sweet spot," was doubled in size in the the new, larger rackets, and so for most people, it was easier to use. The larger rackets became the standard at all levels of play by the early 1980s.