Tennis' world governing body is exploring a concept that could radically change the design of tennis balls and the materials used to make them.
'New balls, please' will be said countless times when Wimbledon begins on Monday - but could we soon see a new, more sustainable ball used in tennis?
The ITF estimates hundreds of millions of balls are used in tennis games every year, and challenges exist with recycling conventional balls because of the way they are made. The prototype shown to BBC Sport - which will be presented to ball manufacturers and other stakeholders in the coming weeks - features a polymer outer shell with holes, as opposed to the normal fabric coating over the rubber core.
"The first, most important, from a sustainability , is: is it actually a net benefit in terms of the associated CO2 emissions of production and the life of the ball?""The second thing is, does the ball perform like a conventional tennis ball? "We're looking at the possibility of maybe using fewer tennis balls, so changing the order size that some tournaments are making in terms of tennis balls and looking at the frequency of ball changes within matches so that fewer balls are needed," he says. "The second thing is trying to prolong the life of tennis balls. So, for example, repressurizing balls to extend their life.
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