Project Overview

In some ways tennis has become a truly high tech sport. Advances in racket design and composition have changed the speed of the pro game from the days of wooden frames, and made the game easier and more enjoyable at the recreational level.

Television coverage of pro matches makes use of sophisticated statistical analysis to explain the outcome of matches in terms of winners, errors, serving percentages, and ball placement. Pro players study the statistical tendencies of opponents in an effort to get an edge. But at the most basic level of understanding there is no clear picture of what happens to the tennis ball during the course of a tennis match. The radar guns give us an initial velocity of the serves, but beyond that very little is really known about what happens when players strike the ball in the pro game.

This project seeks to study tennis from a new perspective--the perspective of aerodynamics. From the aerodynamic point of view, playing tennis is the ability to make a tennis ball fly within the boundaries of a tennis court.

Our project sets out to determine what can we learn about the flight of the tennis ball. How does the ball fly in the first place? How does it's flight and direction change? What is its speed over the course of its flight? How much does it spin and what are the differences in types and amounts of spin between the players? What happens when the ball hits the court? How does the bounce change the ball's flight? What about its speed and spin? What are the differences is the wide variety of court surfaces in tennis from grass to clay to hard courts? How does the ball interact with the air during its flight?

To investigate these questions we have assembled a team of aeronautical engineers, tennis researchers, and educators. The team is charged with determining what can be learned about the flight of the ball and how this can be learned.

The team has set a goal of studying the flight of the ball at the highest levels of the game with the best pro players in championship competition, something that has never been previously attempted. To accomplish this we have received the support and collaboration of the United States Tennis Association, tournament promoters, and broadcast networks in pursuing this unique and exciting venture.