The Australian Open is currently in full flow with some huge match-ups at Melbourne Park, and it's been a tough tournament for the Brits on court.
But with all the high-profile stars in action, fans would be forgiven for not paying attention to arguably the sport’s most important component - the tennis ball. And few would have ever known, or wondered, why the iconic yellow fluorescent balls are used today.
Well, strap yourselves in documentary lovers, because Sir David Attenborough is the man responsible. Before the legendary nature presenter’s input, tennis matches used white or black balls depending on the colour of the court.
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That spanned almost a hundred years from the 1880s to the 1970s. It was only when Attenborough was working for the BBC that he pointed out that it was difficult to see a white ball in colour television.
The 97-year-old Planet Earth host revealed to Radio Times: “I was controller of BBC2 in 1967 and had the job of introducing colour. We had been asking the government [the colour TV technology] over and over again.
“They wouldn't allow us, until suddenly they said, ‘Yes, OK, you can have it, and what's more you're going to have it in nine months' time,’ or whatever it was.”
BBC2 implemented colour on their broadcast for the first time in 1968. And after the first Wimbledon colour broadcast, Sir David recognised that tennis balls were not vibrant or visible enough on screen to the viewers back home.
The significance of Attenborough’s observation was that the International Tennis Federation (ITF) approved the ‘optic yellow’ ball in 1972. But Wimbledon would ironically be the only tournament to stick with tradition, only allowing the shift to yellow balls in 1986.
The modern ball’s specifications today are controlled by the ITF. They are made mostly in optic yellow colour, have a diameter between 2.575 inches and 2.7 inches and weigh between 56 grams and 59.4 grams.
And after so many transformations, they are barely recognisable to the original wood and leather balls stemming back to the 1300s in France. Nowadays, there are more than 200 different brands of tennis balls with over 350million sold worldwide every year.
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