It depends how far back you actually want to go. The oldest form of racket would be the human hand used by monks in c.1000 for primitive racket games. However, the wooden racket was the tool predominantly used for modernised forms of the game from around the early 16th century to the mid 20th century. The standard wooden racket, which Major Walter Wingfield introduced along with the rules of lawn tennis, had a longer handle and shorter, rounder head than the modern racket, measuring on average 65 square inches around the head and 27 inches in length.
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