What are tennis racquets made of?
Racquet frames were made of wood until the 1970s. Now, they’re made of graphite, fibreglass and other man-made materials. It means racquets are a lot lighter – but just as strong. Tennis legend Bjorn Borg won 11 Grand Slam titles in the 1970s and 80s using a wooden racquet. In 1991 he made a comeback wanting to prove his old-fashioned wooden racquet was still good enough. But he was blown away by little-known Jordi Arresse using a modern graphite racquet. When big hitter Mark Philippoussis compared the speed of his serves using wood and graphite racquets, they were found to be almost the same. The difference was that the graphite racquet was far more accurate. Talk tennis on our messageboards Do racquets come in different sizes? The first oversize racquets were introduced in the early 1980s. The racquet heads are larger which means they have bigger ‘sweet spots’. But they’re harder to control. Better players usually choose smaller head sizes. Men and women can play with the same size r
