Improved aerodynamic design of tennis racket frames

The speed with which a player can swing a racket is acknowledged to have significant influence on the game. Racket head speed is directly linked to the amount of spin that can be imparted to a ball. Modern composites have enabled manufacturers to design rackets that can be swung with high head speeds, however conventional racket design limits the speed that can be engineered into a racket without detrimentally influencing performance. This paper investigates the aerodynamic performance of an alternative to the conventionally designed racket, the O3 SpeedportTM developed by Prince. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) has been used to compare the aerodynamic performance of the new racket to a conventional design at varying head angle. It was found that the O3 SpeedportTM has a reduced drag of approximately 24% at high racket angles.