Wimbledon tennis balls are kept at 68 degrees Fahrenheit. The temperature of tennis balls affects how the ball bounces. At warmer temperatures, the gas molecules inside the ball expand making the ball bounce higher. A tennis ball at lower temperatures causes the molecules to shrink and the ball bounces lower. Every year over 54,000 Slazenger tennis balls are prepared for Wimbledon.
The tennis balls used at Wimbledon have travelled 50,570 miles around the world before they land on Andy Murray’s racket on Centre Court.
Slazenger is a quintessentially British sports equipment manufacturer and has been the official ball supplier for Wimbledon since 1902, with its headquarters based at Shirebrook in Derbyshire.
But their official Wimbledon ball flies between 11 countries and across four continents before being manufactured in Bataan in the Philippines and then travelling the final 6,660 miles to SW19 as illustrated in the graphic below
Mark Johnson, Associate Professor of Operations Management, has looked into the supply chain of the Wimbledon tennis ball and unearthed the surprisingly long and complex journey to one of the world’s biggest sporting events.
Picture Credit : Google