Editor’s note: This article was published in partnership with Artsy, the global art discovery and collection platform. The original article can be seen here.
CNN
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Think about the tennis ball. The little neon orb is so ingenious in its design that it simultaneously inhabits the highest levels of one of our most demanding sports, fits perfectly on the legs of faulty chairs, and is favored by man’s best friend .
The tennis ball is such an unassuming object in our lives that we take its appearance for granted. Who hasn’t come across one, forgotten, in the back of their closet or garage?
Despite its passive presence, one of the most heated internet debates of 2018 centered around its distinctive color: is it really yellow or is it green? The nuance in question comes from an unlikely source: David Attenborough, the legendary British documentarian known internationally for his “Planet Earth” series, played a central role in how we view the tennis ball today.
The sport of modern tennis originated from the English game of lawn tennis, which by most accounts was invented in the 1870s. Lawn tennis was an outdoor adaptation of the indoor racket game “real tennis”, which itself was an adoption of the French pastime game of palm.
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The wool blanket is applied to the cemented halves of a tennis ball.
After many iterations, including balls made of cork, wool and even human hair, the tennis ball found what was then its ideal form: a ball made of a rubber core wrapped in white or black melton, a tightly woven and felted fabric.
For almost a century, tennis balls were white or black. It wasn’t until 1972 that tennis balls took on their bright neon color. At the time, Attenborough was working as a studio controller for the BBC. By the late 1960s, he had pushed the BBC to broadcast Wimbledon, perhaps the most iconic tennis tournament, in color for the very first time.
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Margaret Court faces Evonne Goolagong in the women’s singles final at Wimbledon, July 2, 1971.
Broadcasting tennis in color brought matches to life, but made it difficult to track the ball on screen, especially when it fell near the white lines of the court. So the International Tennis Federation (ITF) undertook a study which found that yellow tennis balls were easier for viewers to see on their screens.
An official ITF rule change in 1972 required all regulation balls to have a uniform surface and be white or yellow in color. However, despite the difficulties experienced by viewers, Wimbledon did not change the color of the ball to yellow until 1986.
In 1991, the Chicago Tribune published a story on the return of white tennis balls. In reality, as the article states, most manufacturers never stopped producing white balls in smaller quantities. Penn product manager Steve Morris told the Tribune that the white tennis balls played on “nostalgia and a sense of collector’s edition.”
Not everyone agreed. Former US clay court champion Grant Golden said the return of white tennis balls would “go straight down the toilet” because “the yellow ball is perfect.”
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A ball boy holds a tennis ball in preparation during the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championships in London, England, 1987.
The unmistakable shade of the tennis ball is officially called “optical yellow” by the ITF. But a Google search for “optical yellow color” leads to the online color encyclopedia ColorHexa. There, the shade is listed as #ccff00 and marked as “Fluorescent Yellow or Electric Lime.”
This thin, blurry line between analogous shades has led to the great Internet debate: are tennis balls yellow or green? The origins of the controversy date back to a now-deleted Twitter post from @cgpgrey that asked users to “help resolve a marital dispute” and vote on the color of a tennis ball. The tweet led media outlets like The Atlantic to make a decision deep dive in the subject that touched on human perception and color theory and, of course, the biggest debate of the 21st century, the color of “The dress.”
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Serena Williams and Roger Federer during their mixed doubles match on day four of the Hopman Cup tennis tournament in Perth on January 1, 2019.
The conversation grew so big that even tennis legend Roger Federer weighed in: saying, “They’re yellow, right?” Despite the ITF’s position, the general consensus was that there may not be a truly right answer. Maybe you are a Roger Federer fan and agree with the Swiss legend that the ball is yellow. Or maybe you’re a Rafael Nadal fan and, on principle, side with green.
Either way, the next time a tennis ball emerges from the recesses of your closet, take a moment to consider the power of its humble design.
