The game of tennis, known as lawn tennis, developed in the 1870s from the game of royal tennis, which has been played for centuries. While both games are similar, they both rely on two or four players opposing each other from different sides of a net and hitting a ball from one side to the other. Real tennis balls have been made with a spherical stitched envelope of leather or cloth filled with rags, horsehair or similar material, whereas tennis balls have always been based on rubber. Since the beginning of lawn tennis in the 1970s, Indian rubber, made from a vulcanization process invented by Charles Goodyear in the 1850s, was used to make lawn tennis balls.

Originally, tennis balls were made of rubber, but the ball’s wear and play properties were enhanced by covering them with flannel sewn around the rubber core. The ball developed rapidly by hollowing out the core and pressurizing it with gas. Originally, core making was based on the ‘clover leaf’ principle whereby the uncured rubber sheet was stamped into a shape resembling a three leaf clover and this was assembled into a roughly spherical space using machinery adapted for that purpose.

Historically, the balls were white or black, depending on the background color of the courts. In 1972, the ITF introduced yellow tennis balls into the rules of tennis, as research had shown that these balls were more visible on television to viewers. Meanwhile, Wimbledon continued to use the traditional white balls, but adopted the yellow ones in 1986. Until high-attitude balls were introduced into the rules in 1989, only one type of tennis ball was allowed. Type 1 and Type 3 balls were introduced into the rules in 2002.

The history of the rules:

1965-Drafting of the rule

The ball shall have a uniform outer surface. If there are seams, they will be without stitches. The ball shall be more than two and a half inches and less than two and five-eighths of an inch in diameter, and more than two ounces and less than two-sixteenths of an ounce in weight. The ball will have a jump of more than 53 inches and less than 58 inches when dropped 100 inches onto a concrete pad, and a deflection of more than .265 of an inch and less than .290 of an inch when subjected to pressure. 18 lbs. Applied at each end of any diameter.