The beginning of modernization

Reagrding the history of the tennis racket, The Open Era of tennis saw many exciting, long rallies even on the fastest surfaces such as grass or cement as tennis rackets were made of sandwiched wood. It wasn’t until the mid sixties, when Wilson’s T2000 metal racket caught on. While metal rackets could be found as early as the late 1800’s, it was never widely used. Wilson’s T2000 tennis rackets were lighter and stronger than any wooden racket and Jimmy Conners, one of the first pros to adopt this new technology used it for most of the 1970’s and found Grand Slam success after success. The long neck, steel frame soon became a best seller.
The T2000 was faced with stiff competition in 1976 when the first popular oversized racket was introduced by Prince. In those days, oversized meant around 95 square inch hitting area. 
While these new rackets helped introduce more players to the game, thanks to forgiving rackets with their huge sweet spot, light weight and increased power, it created a re-learning experience for more powerful, advanced tennis players. Wooden rackets were much stiffer, which made shots more predictable, while the new, lighter aluminum tennis rackets gave too much flex and simultaneously power, resulting in shots ending up in unfavorable results. Off center shots with power distorted the frames and also changed the string direction, causing shots to deviate from their desired target areas. 
Advanced players needed a stiffer frame material, and the best material proved to be a mixture of carbon fibers and a plastic resin to bind them together. This new material acquired the name "graphite," even though it isn’t true graphite such as you would find in a pencil or in lock lubricant. The hallmark of a good racket quickly became graphite construction. By 1980, racquets could pretty much be divided into two classes: inexpensive racquets made of aluminum and expensive ones made of graphite or a composite. The playing days of wooden tennis rackets came to an end, sending them to the dark corners of our closets.

Many historians agree that tennis was first played by monks somewhere in France. It is uncertain if it started in either the 11th or 12 century, but one gruesome fact is that the first so called rackets were made out of human flesh.
It started off more like handball, played first by hitting against a wall, then later over a crude net. (In the southwest of France, people still practice this “ancient” sport). While hitting a ball with bare hand proved a little too uncomfortable after a while, players adopted the use of gloves and more creative folk increased the hitting area and incorporated webbing between their fingers. Others simply used a hard, wooden paddle. The forms varied depending on regions. 
After two or three hundred years of practice, the first device we could legitimately call a racquet came to light, with strings made of gut bound in a wooden frame. The Italians are often credited with this invention. By 1500, racquets were in widespread common in the practice of tennis. The early rackets had a long handle and a small, teardrop-shaped head.
The ancient game had many similarities to today’s game of squash, being it was played indoors, the shape of most rackets had an oval head, like a squash racket and slow balls were used. The greatest difference being tennis rallies were done over a net, not against a wall.
Racquets saw only minor changes between the mid 1800’s and the end of the wooden racket era more than 100 years later. Wooden rackets did get better during these 100 years, with improvements in laminating technology. Sandwiching thin layers of light wood together was a revolution, but they still weighed just under one pound, even with a relative small hitting surface around 65 inches or so.
While these rackets of this era cannot compare to the power and technology of today’s tennis rackets, the evolution from its first days did come a long way.