Why are tennis balls yellow? How colour changed thanks to Sir David Attenborough

Wimbledon 2024 is now under way, running from Monday, July 1 to Sunday, July 14. It will likely be the final time two-time champion Andy Murray graces the All England Club, after indicating he could retire from tennis in 2024.

He also will not play singles at Wimbledon , though he will compete in doubles with his brother Jamie.

Meanwhile, Emma Raducanu has said she is playing with zero expectations at this year’s Wimbledon. Raducanu beat Renata Zarazua 7-6, 6-3 on her return to Centre Court on Monday (July 1), which she called winning ugly like England’s 2-1 victory over Slovakia at Euro 2024.

Wimbledon's Instagram page recently shared a video about how Sir David Attenborough helped to turn tennis balls from white to yellow.

Here's how it happened.

Why are tennis balls yellow?

The first Wimbledon championship was held in 1877, but it was televised for the first time in 1937.

In the mid-1960s, colour TV was becoming increasingly popular. The traditional white tennis ball had been used for decades until Attenborough, a young television executive, sent four colour broadcast cameras to Wimbledon in 1967.

Attenborough was working for BBC Two and wanted the channel to be the first in Europe to broadcast colour television. He honed in on Wimbledon as the perfect programme to show in colour.

“It is a wonderful plot,” he said. “You’ve got drama, you’ve got everything. And, it’s a national event.”

Sports broadcasts ran into problems with the arrival of colour television. The white tennis ball meant that it often blended into the background on the grass courts, making it difficult for viewers at home to see its movement.

After the 1967 Wimbledon tournament, Attenborough suggested that a fluorescent ball would be more visible to the cameras, enhancing viewers’ experience.

The International Tennis Federation (ITF) conducted extensive research to find a colour visible on both colour and black-and-white televisions.

Fluorescent yellow was determined to be the most visible against the various surfaces used in tennis courts.

The change was eventually approved, and the players started serving optic yellow tennis balls instead of white ones. Since then, the yellow tennis ball has become a standard in the sport, used in all major tournaments and recreational play worldwide.

The balls featured at the U.S. Open for the first time in 1973 and were adopted everywhere except for, ironically, Wimbledon, which kept using the white balls until 1986.

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