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The game we now know as tennis took nearly a thousand years to evolve into its modern form. While some evidence suggests that early forms of ball games were played in ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome, most historians trace its direct origins to French monasteries around the year 1000 AD. Here, monks played jeu de paume, the “game of the palm,” striking a wooden ball with the bare hand or with a simple leather glove across a rope stretched through the cloister courtyard. The ga

For more than four centuries, from the 1500s to the early 1900s, tennis racquets were made from solid pieces of wood . It was a tradition that seemed unbreakable — until industrial innovation, much like in the automotive world, paved the way for something new. Earlier attempts had been made to build racquets using layered wood, similar to the bentwood furniture techniques pioneered by Thonet. However, these early efforts failed because the glues available at the time could no

Charles Goodyear Vulcanized Solid Rubber Ball In the 19th century, two groundbreaking inventions laid the foundation for modern lawn tennis: Charles Goodyear's vulcanization of rubber and Edwin Budding's creation of the mechanical lawn mower. In 1839 , Charles Goodyear discovered that heating natural rubber with sulfur transformed it into a durable, elastic material, a process he patented in 1844 as vulcanization . This innovation revolutionized the production of rubber good

Factory-sealed Snauwaert Graphite Mid at the Berlin Tennis Gallery The Last Wooden Triumph: Miloslav Mecir’s Historic Victory On 19 March 1989, Miloslav Mecir – known as “The Big Cat”  for his effortless movement – defeated Yannick Noah in a memorable five-set battle at Indian Wells. It was a meeting between two remarkable milestones: Mecir, the last man to win a professional title with a racquet containing wood, overcame Noah, who had himself been the last player to win a Gr

From White to Yellow Tennis Balls. London, 07 July 1985. A day destined to make history. The 17-year-old German Boris Becker , who had sensationally reached the Wimbledon final as an unseeded player, was now facing the powerful South African Kevin Curren , who had defeated both John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors on his way to the championship match. But Becker remained unfazed. With his explosive serve-and-volley game, he took control of the final and secured victory in four sets

Wilson Sporting Goods has origins as unexpected as they are unique. Before it became a powerhouse in the world of tennis, baseball, and golf, Wilson was part of the Sulzberger & Sons Company , a Chicago-based meat producer. In 1914 , the company established the Ashland Manufacturing Company , repurposing animal by-products for a surprising new purpose: sporting goods. In 1915, it was renamed Wilson & Co. , but the sporting goods division became Thomas E. Wilson & Co. in 1916