If you give an engineer some data in tabular form, she will probably put it into a spreadsheet and plunge into statistical analysis. Looking at the ITF approved ball list tweaked my curiosity about manufacturers for tennis balls. There are only 5 countries that manufacture ITF approved Type 2 tennis balls.
Breaking that down, Thailand is the country of origin for 54% of the approved ball models, followed by the Philippines at 22%, China at 16%, Indonesia at 7%, and India at 1%. The thing about these numbers is that does not necessarily translate into market share percentage.
Unfortunately, information on the numbers of balls produced by each manufacturer is elusive. I suspect that the best source of data available is from the Tennis Industry Association. (TIA) The TIA is an organization that is motivated to grow the game so its members can profit from equipment and accessory sales. Unfortunately, to receive the TIA detailed equipment reports I would have to manufacture ITF approved tennis balls and contribute data to the association for that specific report. Probably that is not going to occur during my lifetime.
In the meanwhile, I would like to take this opportunity to highlight one ball model from the approved ball list simply needs to be shared. Heading up the list is the “Yonex Muscle Power”. This is officially my first awareness that Yonex even makes balls, and the prospect of whipping out some “Muscle Power” balls in a ladies league match genuinely sparks joy for me. I found some on sale at Rakuten and discovered that each can contains only two balls, but unfortunately “Muscle Power” appears only on the can and is not imprinted on the ball.
- ITF Approved Balls, https://www.itftennis.com/en/about-us/tennis-tech/approved-balls/
