History

• The first tennis rackets were made of wood, and wood was still used as the primary material for building rackets until the early 1980s. In the late 1960s, manufacturers began to experiment with other materials. The Wilson T2000, a racket popularized by the great Jimmy Connors, was made of steel and offered unrivaled power, though some players had trouble controlling that power. In 1976, Prince introduced the first oversize frame, an aluminum frame that Pam Shriver used to reach the finals of the 1978 U.S. Open.
  
  

The Graphite Revolution

• In the late 1970s, several manufacturers began experimenting with carbon fiber as a material for building rackets, mixing it with different resins. The new rackets were called graphite frames. Companies like Wilson, Prince, Head, Dunlop and Yonex embraced the new technology. Wilson introduced the Ultra PWS, a racket that had a standard head size, but was made of "graphite." Andrea Jaeger used the frame in her early playing days.
  
  Many pro players were slow to switch to the new technology. At the 1983 U.S. Open, Martina Navratilova, playing with a Yonex graphite frame, faced Chris Evert in the final; Evert was still using her favorite wood frame, and the power differential was clear, as Navratilova crushed Evert 6-1, 6-3.
  
  By 1984, three of most popular rackets of the decade were introduced. Head released the Prestige Classic, Dunlop released the Max 200G and Wilson released the Pro Staff, later referred to as the PS85.
  
  At the start of 1984, John McEnroe switched from his Dunlop wood racket to the Max 200G and embarked on the most dominating year of tennis the men's game has ever seen; McEnroe went 82-3 and won Wimbledon and the U.S. Open. Another dominating player, Steffi Graf, used the 200G for most of the decade and won the Grand Slam in 1988 with the racket.
  
  1984 also saw Evert and Connors switch to the PS85. Other famous players to use the PS85 include Stefan Edberg, Jim Courier, Jennifer Capriati and Pete Sampras, who won 14 Grand Slam titles with the racket.
  
  

Refinements

• Many players found that graphite rackets had such exceptional durability that they didn't require replacing as often as wood frames. Manufacturers instead worked to refine the technology.
  
  Widebody frames, which were stiffer in the direction of impact, were popularized in the late 1980s. Babolat, long an innovator in string construction, launched a line of rackets in 1994 that were embraced by many top players, including Andy Roddick and Rafael Nadal. The Babolat frames were lighter and stiffer, and based on the widebody designs of the 1980s.
  
  At the turn of the century, some manufacturers, such as Wilson and Yonex, turned to nano-technology to create frames that were lighter and stiffer. Wilson launched their nCode frames in 2005, which mixed silicon dioxide crystals in the spaces between the carbon fibers. The resulting matrix was supposedly twice as strong and twice as stable, and resulted in a substantial power increase while keeping the weight down.
  
  

The future

• What does the future hold? For now, most players, both professional and amateur, are interested in vibration dampening. The impact of the frame meeting the ball causes substantial vibration and shock that travels up a player's arm. Babolat introduced its Cortex technology in 2007; this technology, located just above the grip of the racket, helps filter out vibrations while still allowing the player "feel" for the ball.
  
  Other companies, like Head, have investigated the use of electronic devices implanted in the racket frames to control vibrations.
  
  

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