Only introduced 54 years ago
Did you know? That’s why tennis balls are yellow
Updated 02/20/2026 – 07:00 amReading time: 2 min.
Yellow balls are something tennis fans take for granted today, but their introduction marked a turning point in the sport’s history.
There are some things that are self-evident in sports – such as that a football game usually lasts 90 minutes or that a tennis ball is yellow. But that wasn’t always the case: until 1970 they were white. Why aren’t we playing with white balls anymore?
The history of the yellow tennis ball has several strands – one of which begins around 50 years ago at the Technical University of Braunschweig. There, scientists carried out experiments on the speed of reactions to optical stimuli. The white tennis balls that were common at the time were also used. It turned out that these are not ideal.
An interdisciplinary team from the fields of psychology, physics, photogrammetry and cartography as well as the Institute for Physical Exercise compared white balls with specimens of different colors. It soon became apparent that the yellow balls were much more noticeable – especially in the peripheral field of vision of the human eye. The benefits of this bright color were also examined and confirmed in collaboration with the German Tennis Association (DTB) and the Dunlop company.
There was also another point: the introduction of color television. The yellow balls provided good contrast and better visibility. Organizers and television broadcasters were keen for the broadcasts to be easily accessible. The new color scheme was presented to the public for the first time at the German Tennis Championships in 1970. In 1972, the International Tennis Federation (ITF) officially adopted the yellow ball into its rules, finally replacing the white ball.
The tournaments in the World Championship Tennis series run by former professional Mike Davies also played a role: the competition to the ATP tournament relied on colorful clothing and rule changes to make the sport more attractive to the general public. Colored balls fit the concept well.
But initially nothing changed at the traditional tournament in Wimbledon: the organizers stuck to the “everything in white” rule for years – not only with clothing, but also with the tennis balls.
Although the tournament was first broadcast in color in 1967, it took until 1986 before Wimbledon also switched to yellow balls. Boris Becker won his first Grand Slam title with white balls in 1985.
