Tennis Ball
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Choosing The Right Tennis Balls
Practice Balls
These are very cheap, usually never pressurized, come in plastic bags, and fall apart after first few hours of play. These are good for tennis balls machines where hundreds of balls are needed, or during your own practice. For instance power stroke practice where you'll be damaging many balls anyways.
Pressure
Most tennis balls are pressurized. This means that there's air, trapped and pressurized in the ball. When you buy your balls, they come in a seal tight container so that there's no air that can seep through the balls rubber as it would have nowhere to go. This is exactly what happens to balls after prolonged use, and the balls seep the air and are basically useless. You could however use a repressurizer machine, where a large chamber is pressurized with air, and the balls regain their pressure. For a good ball that will keep its pressure longer and its bounce, the Dunlop Grand Prix Har Tru Tennis Balls will be your best buy.
Colour
Tennis balls are usually that bright green colour. They are easy to see, but now orange balls are getting more popular as they have been proved to have better visibility. Still all tournaments will use green as the camera has an easier time picking them up.
Durability
So you don't want to be replacing your balls as much, and want more durable ones. Balls after a certain amount of use, loose their pressure inside and no longer have that same bounce or feel to them. If you're expecting to be playing outdoor, then extra-duty felt balls will prevent the felt from wearing off as fast, as compared to regular-felt. Felt is the fuzz on the outside ball made usually of wool. The best durability balls have been proven to be the Wilson Double Core.
Is your ball still good?
To see whether your ball has lost its pressure and is no longer good, you can do a self test. Simply drop the ball from the height of your forehead, and if it bounces back up above your waste then it's still deemed playable.
Numbering
Many tennis balls these days have numbers. You might be wondering what these numbers mean, and they are just simply there so you can identify your balls from other players that are playing near you.
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