The International Tennis Federation (ITF) is the worldwide governing body of tennis. As custodians of the Rules of Tennis, the ITF is responsible for monitoring developments in equipment technology in order to protect the nature of the game of tennis at all levels. The establishment of working partnerships with some of the world’s leading academic sports institutions has resulted in groundbreaking research and greatly enhanced the collective knowledge of the science of tennis.
In the last ten years the ITF has established a state of the art tennis equipment research laboratory, which is now one of the leading sports engineering facilities in the world. Recent initiatives led by the ITF Technical Centre include the introduction of a change to the Rules of Tennis allowing the use of new types of tennis ball, including a 6% larger diameter ball, to be used in tournaments and the establishment of international measurement and classification systems for tennis court surfaces.